Q&A 126
Q. I think you misunderstood my question.
A. Ooh... My bad...
Q. I meant to ask do we have anything from the first Christians - outside the Bible records - that describes or narrates of them celebrating the Mass or worshiping the elements?
A. Ooh! Now I get you!
Yes we do!
There is St. Justin. He was a second century pagan from Syria who had a good education in philosophy and in his mid-thirties converted to Christianity. In 165AD, he and six of his companions were scourged and beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to idols.
We have from him a lengthy letter explaining the Christian faith to non-believers that he wrote in 155AD. In it, he mentions how they as Christians celebrated the Eucharist in those days:
"On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray. On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen”. The Eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent."
"On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members..." There were no churches in the first 300 years of Christianity as we have today for various reasons, top among them being that Christianity was publicly outlawed and persecuted. The Eucharist was consequently celebrated in secret, in the houses and homes of Christians, in catacombs and other hidden places. But they still met together on the weekly anniversary of the day of Christ's resurrection.
"The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time.""Recollections of the apostles" are what we have today collected into the New Testament. The writings of the prophets is the Old Testament. Both constitute the First Reading and the Gospel Reading as we are familiar with at Mass today.
"When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings."The homily by the main celebrant (priest or bishop).
"Then we all stand up together and pray." The prayers of the faithful by which we conclude the Liturgy of the Word that precedes the second and more important part of the Mass - the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
"On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward."This is the offertory.
"The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability..."The Eucharistic Prayer wherein Jesus words and actions at the last supper were repeated: "Take and eat... Take and drink... This is my body... This is my blood."
"...and the people give assent by saying, “Amen”." The Great Amen that today we use to respond to the doxology or great hymn of praise that begins "Through Him, with Him, in Him..."
"The Eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent." The Communion Rite we are familiar with which begins with the recital of the Our Father and ends with the final blessing. Interestingly, they already kept or reserved some pieces of the Body of Christ to take to those who could not attend the Mass - a practice still carried on today and that partly answers why we reserve the Blessed Sacrament in tabernacles today.
This is just one example. It also illustrates what we mean when we call the Church "Catholic" or "Universal". Because she teaches all of Christ's doctrines to all people, of all places and as can be seen from this excerpt, of all times. The same way a Christian worshipped in those early years is the same way we worship. And this is one small reason why the Church is unitedhorizontally across different places, and vertically through time.
Very, very happy big feast of Christ, King of the Universe.
20thNovember 2016