The new Missal makes it clear we’re not just remembering Christ’s passion.

Last month we started looking at the new translation of Eucharistic Prayer II, the eucharistic prayer that is particularly suited to weekday Masses. Specifically, we looked at the biblical references in this eucharistic prayer, reflecting one of the key principles of the new Missal, that “the manner of translating the liturgical books should foster a correspondence between the biblical text itself and the liturgical texts of ecclesiastical composition which contain biblical words or allusions” (Liturgiam Authenticam, No. 49).

These references are especially important because, as the Second Vatican Council noted, “It is from the Scriptures that the prayers, collects, and hymns draw their inspiration and their force” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 24, emphasis added).

I would like to talk about several other changes this month. The first comes in the introduction to the institution narrative, the account of the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist.

The reference to his death in the current Missal will in the new Missal become a reference to his passion: “At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion.”

The word passion is a more inclusive term that embraces both “the suffering and death of Jesus” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, glossary). “In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death” (CCC, No. 609, emphasis added).

Another change is the introduction to the anamnesis, in which the Church calls to mind the passion, resurrection, and glorious return of Christ: “In memory of his death and resurrection” will now read “Therefore, as we celebrate the memorial of his Death and Resurrection.” The change from “in memory” to “the memorial” is significant. “In memory” suggests that we are merely recalling or remembering Christ’s death.

“Memorial” connotes something much more profound. “The Church understands this memorial as a living re-presentation before God of the saving deeds that he has accomplished in Christ, so that their fullness and power may be effective here and now” (Introduction to the Order of Mass, emphasis added).

In the celebration of the Mass, the power of the paschal mystery is made sacramentally present and real.

A third change is found in the Communion epiclesis, which is a petition for the fruitful reception of the body and blood of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. The earliest example of the Communion epiclesis is found in the Apostolic Tradition from about the year 215 (the model for Eucharistic Prayer II). In the Apostolic Tradition the Communion epiclesis asks God to “Send your Holy Spirit on the offering of your holy Church. Gather all those who share in your holy mysteries and grant that by this sharing they may be filled with the Holy Spirit who strengthens their faith in the truth.”

In the new Missal the Communion epiclesis reads, “Humbly we pray that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.” One of the notable changes is the restoration of deprecatory language—“Humbly we pray”—language that expresses reverence and humility toward God.

Many of these self-deprecatory expressions are absent from the present edition of the Roman Missal. Such language is important, however, because, in the words of Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli (a member of the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship), it “effectively acknowledges the primacy of God’s grace and our dependence on it for salvation.”

Passion, memorial, humbly—in and of themselves simple words. Yet their power to place us in right relationship with God and to signify the sacramental presence of Christ’s paschal mystery in the celebration of the Mass is immense.

Father Stice directs the diocesan Worship and Liturgy Office. He can be reached at frrandy@dioknox.org.