At a Mass I attended recently, the presider chose to use Eucharistic Prayer IV. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal indicates restrictions on when one may select this prayer: “Eucharistic Prayer IV has an invariable Preface and gives a fuller summary of salvation history. It may be used when a Mass has no Preface of its own and on Sundays in Ordinary Time” (GIRM 365d). In my experience, at least, in addition to these restrictions, presiders rarely select it, perhaps because it is the longest Eucharistic Prayer. In any case, I welcomed the opportunity to hear once again the impulse to universalism of EP IV.
Consider these excerpts:
&&&
You formed man in your own image and entrusted the whole world to his care, so that in serving you alone, the Creator, he might have dominion over all creatures. And when through disobedience he had lost your friendship, you did not abandon him to the domain of death. For you came in mercy to the aid of all, so that those who seek might find you.
&&&
We offer you his Body and Blood, the sacrifice acceptable to you which brings salvation to the whole world.
&&&
Therefore, Lord, remember now all for whom we make this sacrifice: especially your servant, N. our Pope, N. our Bishop, and the whole Order of Bishops, all the clergy, those who take part in this offering, those gathered here before you, your entire people, and all who seek you with a sincere heart.
Remember also those who have died in the peace of your Christ and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known. To all of us, your children, grant, O merciful Father, that we may enter into a heavenly inheritance
&&&
“The aid of all,” “the whole world,” “all who seek you with a sincere heart,” “all of us, your children.” I, and perhaps others, need to hear these phrases in an American culture shot through with polarization, and in a world torn by violence and strife in Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Afghanistan and so many other places I know I am forgetting.
Enrico Mazza writes that in EP IV, “‘salvation’ and ‘unity’ are one and the same” with the unity in question “above all that with the Father through faith in Christ (John 17); [for] when human beings share in this unity, it becomes salvation and redemption.”* I am not going to speculate on how those who do not participate in the sacraments of the Church can become sharers in the unity effected in and through the paschal mystery of Christ. After all, Gaudium et spes 22 holds that this information is known only to God.
I wish only to point out that human unity predicated on peaceful and just relations is a matter that concerns the salvation of each and all of us. Are we hearkening to the universalism in EP IV and by extension in all celebrations of the paschal mystery? Do our Eucharistic celebrations impel us to promote the dignity of all persons, cultures, and societies? If not, are our hearts hardened or do we also need to examine the authenticity and vitality of our liturgical celebrations?
*Enrico Mazza, The Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite, trans. Matthew O’Connell (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 185.
Please leave a reply.