Liturgically Speaking: The Communion Rite and The Concluding Rite

After the Eucharistic Prayer and our “Amen,” the Communion Rite begins with the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.  In early centuries, catechumens learned this prayer only weeks before baptism.  It was well established in the liturgy by the time of St. Augustine in the early fifth century.  It makes sense that we include the prayer which we regard as the most perfect, since it came from the lips of the Savior Himself.  The priest alone prays what is known as the Embolism:  “Deliver us Lord, we pray, from every evil…”  We then conclude with yet another doxology or song of praise: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.”

The sign of peace is a sign of sharing in peace, unity, and fellowship before we share in the even more profound communion of the one loaf and one cup.  It echoes the words of the risen Christ in John 20:20: “Peace be with you.”  We know than St. Paul often exhorted Christians to greet one another with the kiss of peace.  Thus it also entered the liturgy.  Originally it was toward the end of the offertory, a sign of peace and love as the gifts were being brought to the altar.  Pope Innocent I (410-417) moved it to its current place in the liturgy.

There is then a breaking of the Eucharistic bread over the paten and a small piece of the host is placed in the chalice.  The priest prays: “May this mingling of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.”  This is again reminiscent of the Lord who, at the Last Supper, took bread, blessed it, and broke it.  It was also in the breaking of the bread that the disciples recognized Christ on the road to Emmaus.  Early Christians referred to the Eucharist at times simply as “the breaking of the bread.”  The precise origin of the Commingling of a piece of the host in the chalice is unknown.  It is sometimes thought to symbolize the reunification of the body and blood of the risen Lord whose blood was shed on the cross. 

This action is accompanied by the singing or recitation of the Angus Dei, or Lamb of God.  This title shows Christ as not just priest, but as victim.  It recalls the Passover lamb sacrificed to free the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and from death.  It echoes the words of John the Baptist in the Gospel of John: “Behold the Lamb of God” (1:29).  This itself is a reference also to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 who suffered for the sins of many, the “lamb that is led to the slaughter house like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers.”  Finally, the Lamb of God is a kind of wedding hymn that proclaims the union of Christ and the Church.  In the Book of Revelation, Christ the bridegroom appears as a lamb as though it had been slain.  The Book of Revelation is the wedding feast of the Lamb.   At the Mass, we are the bride. 

Our attitude to this Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is one of profound humility.  Along with the centurion in the Gospel of Matthew (8:8), we say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.”  

It is at this moment that each person reborn in the waters of Baptism, approaches the altar to receive Christ, really, truly, and substantially present in Holy Communion.  We receive the whole Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity under either species of bread or wine. 

After communion, the priest returns to the altar and collects any remaining hosts and clears the altar.  He prays: “What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.”  The priest then prays the Prayer after Communion.  These prayers, again much like the opening Collects, are short and to the point.  They often deal with the effects of fruitful reception of Holy Communion: graces in our soul, an increase in virtue, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the unity of the Body of Christ, and eternal life.

The Concluding Rite is very short and simple.  We are blessed, we are dismissed to go out and serve God, and there is the same reverencing of the altar as in the entrance procession.  The aspect of mission is clear at this point in the Mass.  Having received the body and blood of the Lord, carry into the world the Good News of eternal life in Jesus Christ.  As Pope Benedict XVI said in his first encyclical, “God is Love,”

“Worship” itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented (DCE 14).