Opening of School Homily
September 8, 2008
Abbot Caedmon Holmes, O.S.B.

We did not plan it this way: it's purely coincidental that the Opening of School and the feast of the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary come this year on the same day.

You might be wondering why we begin the School year officially with a Mass.  It is a dressy, ceremonial way for us all to get together and inaugurate the academic term.  Is that why we do it?  What is the Mass, anyway, and why do we make so much of it?

How is what Catholics call "the Mass" different from Jewish or Muslim religious ceremonies, or even Protestant worship, or even some of our own Catholic prayer services such as weekly Chapel assemblies, or the annual Advent Service just before Christmas vacation?

"Mass" is a strange name.  It's also called the Eucharist, the Holy Communion, the Divine Liturgy, the Lord's Supper, or the Holy Sacrifice.  But these names don't help much to clarify the meaning, either, do they?

Maybe if we look at its structure...;

The Mass is always made up of two main sections, and we are just about at the end of the first of these---the Liturgy of the Word---in which we principally listen to what God has to say to us in readings from the Bible.  On a Sunday or a very big feast day there will be three readings (today we just have two):  the first, normally from the Old Testament (or the Jewish scriptures); the second, from somewhere in the New Testament, often from one of the Letters of the apostles, usually St Paul; and the third and last, always a reading from one of the four Gospels, or accounts of Jesus' life, teaching, death, and resurrection. In these writings God is addressing you and me; he is speaking to us.  And the Responsorial Psalm and the Alleluia sung between the readings can be thought of as our answer to him.  Then comes a homily, or sermon, such as you're hearing from me right now.  Usually it deals with something of what has been heard in the Bible readings; and the hope is that the homily will help us to hear better what God is saying to us in the readings of the Mass, and will encourage us to answer him in the way we live our lives.

Then after a series of petitions to God called "the Prayer of the Faithful," we arrive at the other main section of the Mass, what's called the Liturgy of the Eucharist (a Greek word meaning "thanksgiving"), where we give God our thanks for everything which he has done in creation and redemption by offering him what pleases him most:  his Son Jesus Christ.  For himself and for you the priest, acting in the person of Christ, offers God the bread and wine, prays over them, calls down the Holy Spirit of God upon them, says over them the words Jesus said at the Last Supper, and at the saying of these words they are changed from being bread and wine into being really the Body and Blood of Christ, which is then received by priest and people in Holy Communion.  Then the priest offers a final prayer, blesses the people in God's name, and dismisses them, or rather sends them out in the peace of Christ to live as Christ did.  And so the Mass is ended.

Now, this first part, this meeting together to hear readings from the Bible and to respond to them with song and prayer, is the Church's inheritance from the worship of the Jewish people. (But, of course, the Jews would not read from the New Testament.)  Jesus himself, at his Last Supper, on the evening before he died, instituted (or invented) the central core of the liturgy of the Eucharist, that is, the changing of bread and wine into his Body and Blood, and empowered his disciples---and ordered them---to continue to do likewise in memory of him.  So the Church did not make this up---Jesus did.

Obviously this ritual is only as important as Jesus himself is.  So who is Jesus?

"Jesus is the Word of God become a human being for the salvation of all."  (That's a quotation from a recent official Church document.  Here's another one:)  "The Word of God, through whom all things had been created, became flesh, that is, human [in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary],
so that as perfect man he could save all human beings
and sum up all things in himself. 
The Lord [Jesus] is the goal of human history,
the focal point of the desires of history and civilization,
the centre of humanity,
the joy of all hearts,
and the fulfillment of all aspirations. 
It's he whom [God] the Father raised from the dead, exalted, and placed at his right hand, appointing him judge of the living and the dead."

Clearly, not everyone [not even everyone here this morning] believes these propositions and believes that to accept these propositions requires faith.  What's that?  Is it the same thing as belief?  No, not exactly.  Faith is "acceptance in grace of revealed truth, which makes it possible to penetrate the mystery in a way that allows us to understand it coherently."  The essential words are "acceptance in grace of revealed truth, which makes it possible to penetrate the mystery."

Faith is "acceptance," which implies receiving something which we have not figured out ourselves by mere human powers.  [It also implies a kind of obedience to God, allowing him to tell us what we could not have found out, allowing him to lead us where he wills, going along with him.] 
 
"Revealed truth" means truth which it took God to make known to us, because we could never have discovered it by ourselves. 

"Acceptance in grace" means that God gives us his own special help to accept what we could not have believed without his aid.

"To penetrate the mystery":  "the mystery" here doesn't mean the puzzle, or the riddle, or the enigma, but the 'concrete something which, when you bump into it, puts you in contact with a divine reality.' [Another quotation.]

The mystery here is the mystery of Jesus himself, his true identity---contact with him means contact with divine reality.  Also the mystery is the mystery of his Body and Blood becoming present on the altar and then in the Holy Communion under the external appearances of bread and wine---reception of them means coming into contact with divine reality.  And this contact requires faith.

If you don't have faith but you want it, ask him for it.  Nobody has faith except as a gift from God: it's beyond mere human capacities.

We understand that not everyone here is Catholic or even Christian.  Whoever you are, Christian or not, God created you, and loves you, and wants to communicate himself to you.  The Mass is a meeting of the Catholic Church, which is the present-day form of that same Church which Jesus himself founded in the first century when he called his disciples together into community with him.  But Jesus is not just for Catholics, nor just for Catholics and Orthodox Christians and Protestants: he is for the whole human race, including you who are not Christians, whether that ever occurred to you before or not.  We do not intend to press you and make you uncomfortable, but we hope that in your time here with us you will come to know something of Jesus (and we don't mean only historical facts).  Meanwhile you are very welcome here among us; and while we recognize that in conscience you may not be able to join us completely in what we're doing here, we thank you for praying with us as you are able and according to your beliefs.

Let me conclude with a couple of practical points. The Hebrew word AMEN means "Yes, I accept it, I believe it."  At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, which I will sing over the bread and wine, the other priests and I will sing to God the words "Through him [meaning "through Jesus"], with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever."  Then the Christian people, who have stood silent throughout the Eucharistic Prayer, respond "Amen" (yes, we accept it, and we make the Eucharistic Prayer ours by this response). Obviously, those only who accept what has been said should respond with "Amen."

Similarly, at Holy Communion (and I think Brother Francis will have told you about this yesterday or the day before) when the priest gives the consecrated host to a person who comes for Holy Communion, he says as he does so, "The Body of Christ," and the communicant answers "Amen" (yes, I believe it).  Again obviously, if one can't conscientiously say "I believe it," one shouldn't receive Holy Communion.

Finally, we have here what may seem at first blush a peculiar practice of singing the Our Father at all-School Masses in Latin, using a tune which is very old and I think beautiful.  This is a precious bit of Catholic heritage which is well worth preserving.  Besides, some of our students and faculty have been grateful for it when they have gone to Rome to the Pope's General Audience on Wednesday mornings or to the great shrine of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes in France---both of these places where Catholics from all over the globe and of many, many different languages come together---our students and faculty have been grateful to be able to join in the singing of the Our Father, the Pater Noster, in Latin with fellow Catholics from foreign countries.  We will do it often enough that you will get used to it and probably find you have learned it by heart.

Today, September 8th, is the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, nine months after December 8th, when we celebrate the feast of her Conception.  God willing, we will have more to say to you about her when we gather for Mass on December 8th.  May she pray for us all as we begin a new school year.  This holy Sacrifice is being offered for all you students, faculty, and administration as you begin. 

Some here are excited and enthusiastic about the start of the year.  Some of us are a bit nervous, unsure, perhaps homesick, or at least sorry that the summer vacation is so soon over.  Let's keep in mind what we heard in the first reading of this Mass: "All things work together for good for those who love God, whom he has called according to his purpose"---that's us.

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