‘When you offer a Mass intention, you are not “buying prayers.” You are joining your love to the Sacrifice of Christ, asking that His saving grace be applied to a soul, a need, or a cause dear to your heart.’ – Anthony Okoloba.
I came across this quotation recently by a Catholic Nigerian layman who posts on spiritual matters. On this at least, he struck a chord with me. The sacrifice of the mass is a concept that is not shared with Protestants, but the belief goes back to the earliest times. The Fathers of the Church saw the mass as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Malachi (1:11), “From the rising of the sun even to the going down……and in every place there is a sacrifice and there is offered in my name a clean oblation.” You might recognise this reference in Eucharistic Prayer 3, near the start.
We should understand that the saving sacrifice of Christ’s death on the cross, is offered once and for ever (as Protestants remind us) but the Church believes the mass “makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Saviour” (CCC 1330) for us in the here and now. That eternally significant moment on Calvary is made present to us in a tangible way.
And the Church has long taught that it makes present Christ’s graces to both the living and the dead. When, in the 4th century, St Monica was dying a long way from home, she told her son St Augustine that he shouldn’t worry about where she was buried as long as he “remembered her at the altar of the Lord.” So it is right that we wish to have mass said for our loved ones, living or dead, so they are remembered at the altar of the Lord. After all, the mass is the greatest of prayers as it is the one that Jesus prayed on Calvary.
Yet, though at a Funeral or Requiem mass it is right that the deceased are mentioned in a special way, for other masses we recognise that the mass is also offered for the whole community. In the eucharistic prayer – whichever one the priest is using – we always pray for the Pope, Bishop, Church, and the living and the dead. Indeed, Eucharistic Prayer 1 talks about “this sacrifice of praise” we bring to God. The mass is also about our sacrifice we bring to join with the sacrifice of Christ, not that we are worthy by ourselves, but because everything is redeemed by His self-sacrifice that we are called to imitate.
In this sense, it is appropriate that we make an offering, or mass stipend, that we contribute. For a long time, mass stipends have been used to finance the clergy and to many, unfortunately, it seems rather like buying a sacrament. In some countries they pay clergy a fixed salary and all mass stipends go into a central pot. Personally, I would favour moving to such a system here too.
Fr Andrew