Dear Father,
Something I don’t understand at Mass is when the priest says, “the mystery of faith.” Can you explain why we have this? It comes at a strange time, too, just after the consecration, and seems to disrupt things.
-Katie
Dear Katie,
You are referring to the part of the Mass where it almost seems as though the priest is pausing the Eucharistic Prayer. Admittedly, it seems strange. Each of the Eucharistic Prayers has this moment when the priest has just consecrated the bread and wine. He genuflects after each of the two consecrations. Then he either chants or recites: “The mystery of faith.”
The priest says “the mystery of faith” to point us to the reality of the presence of Jesus Christ’s body and blood, soul, and divinity. It’s worth recalling that the consecration at Mass is the time when the bread and wine are completely changed into the divine presence.
What may seem even odder is that there is a response from the people expected after the priest says “the mystery of faith.” And depending on the priest’s lead, or the choir’s, the people respond with one of four possible acclamations.
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Even in the Mass before Vatican II, the priest prayed the words “the mystery of faith,” but he said them in Latin, and silently, during the consecration of the chalice. In English, it would be: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it. For this is the Chalice of my Blood, of the new and eternal testament; the mystery of faith; which will be poured out for you and for many for the remission of sins.” Notice that the “mystery of faith” is planted in the very center of this consecration.
Christ’s presence on the altar is more real than anything in our world. And so, just after the consecration, we sing or recite with interior joy our belief and trust in him.
The noted theologian, Fr. Joseph Jungmann, writes that there is no agreement among liturgists about the exact purpose of the words mysterium fidei, which are found in Mass rituals since at least the seventh century. His own surmise is that the mystery of faith refers to our entire faith and salvation. “The chalice of the New Testament,” he says, “is the life-giving symbol of truth, the sanctuary of our belief.”
In other words, the “mystery of faith” points to everything that we believe as Catholics, but particularly is bound up with the fact of Christ’s sacrificial death and his resurrection. Think of the first of the people’s responses at this point in the Mass: “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.” We attest that we are delivered from eternal damnation by the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, who utterly loves us and desires that we be one with him in heaven.
The other acclamation options are similar: “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.” The Bread is Christ’s Body and the Cup is Christ’s Blood. Finally: “Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.”
All three possibilities allow the congregation to praise God for his unfathomable love for us, shown by his desire to die for us that we might live eternally with him. Simultaneously, when we make these acclamations, we signify our belief in the Real Presence of Christ’s Body and Blood. This is no merely symbolic moment, no nostalgic reminiscence of some long past event.
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Now, the word “mystery” often trips people up when it is used in relation to our faith. Some think that if something is a religious mystery, then we can’t understand it, and so it’s not worth thinking about. It’s like saying: it’s all beyond me so I’m not going to bother with it.
This is not an entirely accurate way to understand Catholic mysteries. There is an element of never being able to completely grasp the meaning of the mystery with the human intellect alone. For instance, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, that there are three persons in one God, is inaccessible to reason alone (see Catechism, no. 237). No one can ever fully explain the Trinity, but this does not mean we should abandon all hope of speaking about it.
Mysteries of our faith, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, our salvation from eternal death, and all the rest, are known insofar as God has revealed them and their meaning. The element of knowability moves us to try to see through the darkness imposed by our limited intellect. It’s not that we can’t know God; it’s rather that we can never know him perfectly.
So it is with what Christ gives us in the Eucharist: his entire being.
Fr. Frederick Faber, in his book The Blessed Sacrament, says that a divine mystery is like a picture or portrait of God. Even a picture of a limited human being will never disclose the complete person. Moreso is this the case with our infinite God.
So, when you respond to “the mystery of faith” at Mass, think of the image of Christ crucified and risen, wanting to draw you into a deeper loving union, as you await his final return, both at the end of your life and at the end of time.