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| BOOK | REVIEW |
Mysteries of the Mass
by Martin K. Barrack
The Mass: Its Mysteries Revealed
by George P. Morse
Catholics Committed to Support the Pope
51 pp. ; $7.95 · (301) 434-3245
The Catholic reader taking up a book of such penetrating reflections asks
first whether it is aligned with the pope and the bishops in union with him. Experience
has taught the faithful reader to look in the front for a name that he recognizes as
faithful. Some names guarantee fidelity to the Magisterium, others something less.
We find here a nihil obstat from Dr. William May, one of the world’s foremost moral theologians, an imprimatur by Most Rev. William Lori, an endorsement by Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, who was closely involved with preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and an introduction by Edouard Cardinal Gagnon, a Vatican cardinal of impeccable reputation and a dear friend of my own late spiritual director. Any one of these names would have sufficed. Our assurance complete and redoubled, we can relax the wariness with which devout Catholic readers necessarily approach new books and dive happily into its living water to splash around in pure joy.
The Mass: Its Mysteries Revealed highlights the mysteries of Christ’s public revelation as taught by the pope and magistri into which the Holy Eucharist fits as a diamond fits perfectly into its setting.
A mystery is not something about which we know nothing. It is something about which we do not know everything. Suppose on Saturday morning we acquire a pup, bring it home, and spend the weekend playing with it. But early Monday morning we go out of the house, lock the door, and don’t return until sundown. The pup can only conclude that we no longer care to play with him. As the days pass, he encounters a mystery. Some days we are with him all day, but most days we are away all day. He accepts but will never understand. Working for a living is completely outside his frame of reference.
So too with God. We know that He is one, an undivided Unity, and also that He is a Trinity of three divine Persons. Both statements are absolutely true. Our experience in this life does not allow us to understand how they can both be true. God tells us more about Himself than we can understand to show us that He is holding nothing back.
St. Augustine is said to have been walking along a beach meditating on the Blessed Trinity when he saw a small boy carrying a bucket of water from the ocean and pouring it into a hole dug in the sand. When St. Augustine asked what he was doing, the boy replied that he was pouring the ocean into a hole. St. Augustine told him, “But you can never do that.” The little boy, actually an angel, then told St. Augustine, “And neither can you understand the Blessed Trinity.”
We do well to prepare ourselves before entering into the mysteries of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Introductory Rite helps us prepare to receive the Word of God and the Word Made Flesh. “I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters . . .” Yet, even after confessing that we are sinners and asking our whole covenant family to pray for us, we know that it is not enough and we cry out, “Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy! Lord have mercy!” All that we do to raise ourselves to Christ is not enough, as we finally acknowledge, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive You…”
Msgr. Romano Guardini, a German priest and professor, 60 years ago helped prepare his congregation to concentrate by giving a talk each Sunday before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Sophia Institute Press published an English edition called Preparing Yourself for Mass. In 1939, Msgr. Guardini’s texts were gathered for a book, Besinnung vor der Feier der Heiligen Messe. In 1956 these texts were translated into English and called Meditations Before Mass. Sophia Institute Press in 1993 published an edition under the same name, and in 1997 renamed it Preparing Yourself for Mass. That book was reviewed in The Catholic Faith July-August 1997.
Msgr. Guardini addressed Catholics who attended the Tridentine Mass. The Tridentine Rite is in Latin. Many Catholics of that day knew that the Mass was Christ’s Body and Blood. Their preparation was, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10). Also, Msgr. Guardini’s parishioners lived in a world that was broadly respectful of Catholic teaching. Msgr. Guardini leads the intensely faithful Catholic to great heights, but his book may be more than the average Catholic in the pew can absorb.
Pat Morse, by contrast, addresses an audience familiar primarily with the Novus Ordo Mass which is usually celebrated in the vernacular and significantly involves the congregation. Many pewsitters of our day know what the priest is saying, and are helped to focus by their participation. However, they live in a world that is increasingly ignorant and contemptuous of Catholic teaching. Mr. Morse speaks directly to the average Catholic: “Let us be realistic. It is difficult throughout the Mass — and every Mass we attend — to maintain a constant and unswerving focus on the teaching of the Church and Christ concerning the Mass. There are distractions and there are personal problems and there is the skillful temptation of the devil to deny us the treasures Christ offers us by our reverent attendance and worthy reception of His Body and Blood.”
Mr. Morse may be addressing the average Catholic, but he is offering high octane Catholic faith. He begins by explaining what is happening at Mass, that Christ Himself is the principal and actual priest at every Mass, that Christ Himself is the Victim offered as the oblation for our sins, and that the Mass is identical to Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross. He then highlights seven major mysteries of the Mass: Christ renews His incarnation, Christ renews His nativity, Christ renews His life, Christ intercedes for us, Christ renews His passion and death, Christ renews the shedding of His Blood, and Christ renews His resurrection and ascension. He adds the four purposes for which the Mass is offered: to give glory to God, to thank Him for His innumerable benefits, to make reparation for our many sins, and to seek graces and blessings. He shows how the Mass is the sacrifice of the whole Church, not just of the particular church in which it is offered, and also how in the Mass we give ourselves as a gift to Jesus. Finally, Mr. Morse suggests some prayers for use before and after Holy Communion.
The glory of The Mass: Its Mysteries Revealed is that each subject is presented very briefly, on one or two pages, and in language so clear that any reader can comprehend it. Every Catholic would benefit by arriving early for Mass with a copy of this little book and reflecting on it until the Mass begins. I find it particularly useful reading during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Augustine Cardinal Mayer, O.S.B., in a letter from Rome to Mr. Morse dated September 15, 1999, wrote: “I wish to commend you on your present booklet. Your points are well and clearly made and supported with appropriate texts from the Fathers and Doctors of the Church as well as apposite citations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You do well to underscore the Mass as sacrifice and mystery and to give prominence to the great ends for which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered. The presentation of prayers for use before and after receiving Holy Communion makes your book even more useful.”
A balanced review should address a book’s weaknesses as well as its strengths. The title suggests that this book is all about mysteries of the Mass, but there is also a subsection called “The Mysteries of the Mass.” The title has it right; the subsection should have been given a more specific heading. Also, the book subsumes the subject “A Gift of Myself” under “The Sacrifice of the Whole Church” when I would have given them equal prominence. Finally, there is no table of contents; it would have been convenient even in so short a book. But these are trivial cavils, the tiny imperfections on a handmade work of art. In all, it is a splendid book.
Mr. Morse has also edited and published a book series called Précis of Official Catholic Teaching, aimed at seminarians, theologians, clergy, and lay people. The last of its 12 volumes should be available by the time this review appears in print. Précis, like The Mass: Its Mysteries Revealed, can be obtained from Mr. Morse’s apostolate, Catholics Committed to the Pope, at (301) 434-3245.
Marty Barrack, a Jewish convert and Catholic evangelist, is the author of Second Exodus, published by Magnificat Institute Press in Houston, Texas, (800) 370-8201, which illuminates the Jewish heritage of the Catholic Church. The book is the centerpiece of Marty and Irene’s Second Exodus apostolate (http://www. secondexodus.com) which helps Catholics serve Jews interested in learning more about the Church.