Today I will speak about what I have always unofficially considered the climax of Mass. It’s the moment when the priest breaks the large host in half, placing a small fragment of the Body of Christ into the chalice while praying “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it” while all sing the Lamb of God.
Then the assembly kneels, the priest raises the body and blood of Christ and with great conviction announces to all, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”
Even when I was young, I always thought this was the highest point of Mass since the priest shows us Jesus and boldly announces his presence among us. This happens as the assembly kneels in adoration in the same way Saint John describes in the Book of Revelation: there is a crowd too large to count with angels and saints worshiping Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, sitting on the throne in heaven. As he watched, John was told to write, “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”
At this moment we too are invited to join in the wedding feast of the Lamb. We are raised up into heaven to worship Jesus Christ, becoming one with all the angels and the saints.
We respond to the invitation to the Supper of the Lamb saying, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
The new translation restores the Scriptural passage the response evokes. Saint Matthew records in his Gospel a centurion, a Roman official, who approached Jesus as he entered the town of Capernaum. The centurion begged Jesus to heal his servant who lay at home dying. Jesus agreed to go to the centurion’s house to heal the servant, to which the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” Matthew tells that when Jesus heard this, he said, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.” The servant was healed at that very moment.
Our response to the invitation to communion shows our desire to imitate the great faith of the centurion. Truly we are not worthy to receive Christ, but we know by faith that He comes bringing healing to our souls. When we utter these words, do we have the strong faith of the centurion? Do we truly believe Jesus, present in the Eucharist, can heal our broken souls?
While visiting the Holy Land some years ago I had the opportunity to visit Capernaum. The now archaeological site is divided into two: half belongs to the Catholic Church which is the main pilgrimage site, the other half is a Greek Orthodox monastery.
I ventured to the Orthodox side (which is usually closed) on my own and rang the door bell. The large door opened automatically, I went inside. As I wondered around, a monk dressed in black approached me speaking Hebrew, or perhaps Greek. I answered in English. He was glad to have me visit and he gave me a tour of the monastery, we even had a cup of coffee by the Sea of Galilee.
The monk took me to the ruins of the centurion’s house… you may wonder, how did archaeologists identify it? It was the only house in Capernaum with indoor plumbing (you can still see the pipes and drains) and it had the same floor plan as other centurion outposts in the region. I stood in the middle of the ruined building in awe meditating, “This is where it happened, here the servant was healed.”
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