October 2, 2021 - Pastor Message
04/24/2024THE MASS EXPLAINED PART 7: THE CONCLUDING RITES
“Then Jesus approached and said to them, ‘All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).
The above reading records Matthew’s account of the final commission of the apostles by the risen Christ. While that commission means something specific for the apostles, it was given to the whole Church, and Christ calls each of us to carry out this mission in our own way. That is the purpose of the final part of the Mass, the Concluding Rites.
The Concluding Rites form the shortest part of the Mass, consisting of only the announcements, the final blessing, the dismissal, and the recessional. Their brevity takes nothing away from their importance, however. In fact, the word, “Mass”, is drawn from the Concluding Rites, which, in the older, Latin form of the Mass, the priest concluded with the words, “Ite, missa est,” literally, “Go, there has been a sending,” but in a more grammatically correct way, “Go, you have been sent.” Like the apostles, the Concluding Rites send us out to continue the mission of the Church, to extend the salvation Christ won for us in his cross and resurrection, the very mystery we celebrate and receive at Mass, to all people.
We see this in each part of the Concluding Rites, all of which direct our attention outward. The announcements, which I typically make prior to Mass but which normally would come at the end, inform us of the many ways that we as a parish or a Church strive to carry out our mission outside of Mass, whether in faith formation activities, social events, charitable works, or whatever. The final blessing and dismissal seal all that comes before them, sending us out with God’s blessing to live the new life we have received. In the recessional we then “Go” as Jesus has sent us, symbolized by the ministers leaving the church right through the midst of the congregation, just as they had processed in. In the procession at the beginning of Mass, the ministers symbolically lead the whole congregation into the sanctuary, and, in the recessional at the end of Mass, the ministers symbolically lead us out into the world to shine the light of God’s saving presence we have celebrated in the sanctuary for the whole world to see. But we don’t do so alone. Just as we gathered in unity during the procession, symbolized by the gathering hymn, so we leave in unity, symbolized by the recessional hymn. We remain one in the unity Christ brings about through the Mass, especially the Communion Rite, which immediately precedes the Concluding Rites.
The Mass is not just for those who are there. It is for the whole world, and it is up to us, who do come to Mass, to go out and invite others to come and share in that saving celebration to. We are sent out to do that by the Concluding Rites.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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