LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF THE ANGELS

a reflection by friar Bob Showers OFM Conv.

 
And before the throne of the living God was a sea of glass as clear as crystal.
And the angels stood around the throne. They threw themselves down and worshipped, singing,
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts!"
And they continue to worship night and day before His throne.

Revelations 7:11f
 

The angels adore before the throne of the Father and of the Lamb, as the saints and martyrs cast their crowns upon the crystal sea.
Illustration from Bodleian manuscript 180, folio 020
 

On May 23/24, we will return to congregational Mass, but it will be with lots of restrictions (see article below). The question arises -- Is it a real Mass if there is absolutely no singing? Is it Catholic tradition to nod to people six feet away while wearing a mask? Is this the Mass I knew and loved?

I am convinced that the predominant feeling, when we gather for Mass again, will be JOY! Overwhelming joy! It is a happy, happy moment. Underneath the happiness, though, will be a feeling of "weirdness". So many things will seem odd, maybe just plain wrong. We might even wonder if the whole thing seems sacrilegious.

It is not. 

Two centuries ago, the Benedictine monk Anselm Schott OSB, the inventor of the missalette, used to say, "The most important part of every Mass is the part that GOD does. Every Mass is God's Mass, not ours."

This is a central Catholic teaching. The real Mass is the one sung in heaven by the angels before the throne of God (see Rev. above). The Bible makes clear - when we celebrate Mass on earth, we are participating, "indistinctly, as in a mirror dimly" (1 Cor 13:12), in the Eucharistic Feast of Heaven. Mass on earth is a valid Mass only if it participates in the heavenly liturgy. That is why there must be a validly ordained priest, real bread and real wine, and so on. As the 1st Eucharistic Prayer says,

Command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy angel
to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty,
so that all of us, who through participation at this temporal altar receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son,
may be filled with heavenly blessing.

The classic expression of this truth is the hymn Holy Holy Holy, verse 2:

Holy, Holy, Holy!
Lord God Almighty!
All the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea!
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Which wert and art and evermore shalt be.
  

The angels know what they're doing. We'll be fine.

Friar Bob
15 May 2020