Catholic Church - The Lambs Supper: the Mass as heaven on Earth

SCOTT HAHN

The Mass as Heaven
on Earth

DOUBLEDAY

New York London Toronto Sydney Auckland

Contents

Part One
THE GIFT OF THE MASS

INTRODUCTION
Christ Stands at the Door: The Mass Revealed

ONE
In Heaven Right Now: What I Found at My First Mass

TWO
Given for You: The Story of Sacrifice

THREE
From the Beginning: The Mass of the First Christians

FOUR
Taste and See (and Hear and Touch) the Gospel: Understanding the Parts ofthe Mass

Part Two
THE REVELATION OF HEAVEN

ONE
I Turned to See: The Sense amid the Strangeness

TWO
Who's Who in Heaven: Revelation's Cast of Thousands

THREE
Apocalypse Then! The Battles of Revelation
and the Ultimate Weapon

FOUR
Judgment Day: His Mercy Is Scary

Part Three
REVELATION FOR THE MASSES

ONE
Lifting the Veil: How to See the Invisible

TWO
Worship Is Warfare: Which Will You Choose:
Fight or Flight?

THREE
Parish the Thought: Revelation as Family Portrait

FOUR
Rite Makes Might: The Difference Mass Makes

To Kimberly

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he withMe... After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an opendoor... Revelation 3:20, 4:1

Foreword

Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel C.F.R.

T HIS REMARKABLE BOOK brings together several powerful spiritualrealitiesall of them important to the believing Christian, and all of themapparently so diverse as to superficially appear unrelated: the end of theworld and the daily Mass; the Apocalypse and the Lord's Supper; the humdrum ofdaily life and the Parousia, the coming of the Lord.

If you are a cradle Catholic like myself, Dr. Hahn is likely to leaveyou with a whole new appreciation of the Mass. If you entered the Church orare thinking of coming into full communion with it, then he will show you adimension of Catholic Christianity that you probably never thought aboutitseschatology, or teaching on the end of time. In fact, relatively few Catholicsrealize the link between the celebration of the Eucharist and the end of theworld.

The salient feature of The Lamb's Supper is its moving andlucid appreciation of the reality of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the act ofworship given to us by our High Priest on the eve of His sacrificial death. Dr.Hahn explores this mysterious reality with all the zeal and enthusiasm of a newconvert.

I can only contrast this with my own experiencethis year I will celebrate (quietly) my fifty-seventh anniversary as an altarboy. Yet when Scott called me and asked me somewhat cautiously to write aforeword to his new book, based on the very ancient eschatologicalinterpretation of the Eucharist given by the Eastern Fathers of the second tothe sixth centuries, I responded with Well, of course, this is what Ithought about the Eucharist for decades.

The Mass, or, as it's more accurately called in the Eastern Churches,the Divine Liturgy, is so rich a reality that there are as many validtheological approaches to it as there are to the whole mystery of ChristHimself. The Eucharist is part of the great living mountain which is Christ, asimile drawn from the ancient saints of the Holy Land. This mountain can beapproached from many sides. This eschatological approach is one of the mostintriguing and fruitful.

I always feel a twinge of annoyance when I see in a college or a hotel alist of religious services and observe the Mass listed at 9 A.M. The Mass is not a religious service. When Catholics say morning prayer orthe recitation of the rosary or even have Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament,that's a service. It's something that we do for God, similar to the publicprayer of any religious denomination. But the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist,the Divine Liturgy, is not preciselyin its essencedone by man at all.

Let me tell you, I've been a priest for forty years and I neverconducted a service called a Mass. I was a stand-in for the HighPriest, to use the words of Church teaching, I was there functioning inpersona Christiin the person of Christ, the High Priest of the Epistle tothe Hebrews. People do not come to Mass to receive my body and blood, and Icould not have given it to them if they did. They come for communion withChrist.

This is the mysterious element in all Christian sacramentsincludingbaptism. For this reason, in case of great necessity anyone can functionin persona Christi to give baptism, because it is Christ who actuallybaptizes. It is Christ who forgives sin, Christ who prepares thy dying, Christwho ordains and who blesses the marriages.

Like Catholic and Orthodox Christians who think about it (as well assome Anglicans and even some Lutherans), I believe that Christ is the Priest ofall the sacraments, just as He speaks to us from every page of SacredScripture. He ministers to us in every sacramentand we experience in this waythe vitality of His mystical body.

When you read Dr. Hahn's account of the Eucharist as the heavenlyworship spoken of in Revelation, as he indicates so well, you should begin totingle with the vitality of grace.

The Mass on earth is the presentation of the marriage supper of the Lamb.As Dr. Hahn points out, most Christians either sidestep the Book of Revelationand its mysterious signs or they spin their own peculiar little theories aboutwho is who and where it's all going to end. As an inhabitant of New York City(the twentieth-century candidate for Babylon), I'm perfectly delighted with theprospect of it all ending soon, even next week. But I am tired of all theseprophets of doom and their interpretations. Promises, promises! Early in thiscentury, I lived through the careers of several guys who were on the short listof candidates for the big antichrist, and no show.

My love for Revelation is not based on all this Star Wars paranoia, buton the wonderful view of the heavenly Jerusalem in the final chapters ofRevelation. These come as close as you can to describing what eye has not seennor ear heard. Now with the reading and rereading of The Lamb's Supper,many other chapters are open to me much more clearlydescribing insymbolic form what the eternal life of the saints may be like, to use St.Augustine's phrase.

It was St. Augustine, you know, who insisted on putting Revelation aswell as Hebrews in the New Testament Canon at an African bishops' council heldat the end of the fourth century. Again, to quote Augustine, we may in prayerby His great mercy touch for an instant that Fountain of Life where He feedsIsrael forever. But apart from these special moments of contemplation, we maysee symbolically at the daily celebration of Mass the realities of the heavenlyworship of the High Priest and His mystical body.

I am grateful to Dr. Hahn for finding and bringing back to life thisvision of the early Fathers of the Church. The only thing that we ever do inthis world that is real participation in the life we hope to live forever is toworship with Christ at the Liturgy. However humble the appointments of thechurch buildings, however limited the spiritual insight of the participants,when we are at the Liturgy of the Mass, Christ is there and mysteriously we arefor that moment standing at the Eternal Supper of the Lamb. Read carefully thisbook, and you will learn how and why.

PART ONE