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THE PREHISTORY OF THE ROMAN MASS

From the Last Supper to the Early Church

The Roman rite began to take shape during the fourth century. Before then the language of the liturgy in Rome was Greek. We have little documentary evidence from the early centuries of Christian worship. Until 313 AD the church was subject to persecution,.and the early eucharistic liturgy remained simple and was improvised according to a patterrn, not written down..

LAST SUPPER, FIRST COMMUNION

There are four accounts of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, representing two separate traditions. The accounts in three of the gospels (John does not tell the story) and in a letter of Paul are essentially the same, with Mark and Matthew drawing on one tradition while behind Paul and Luke there is another recognisably about the same event. Paul’s description was written in the 50s A.D. and refers to what he was told at the time of his conversion some twenty years earlier, taking us back almost to the event itself. He is able to give us an insight into what the earliest Christian community believed about Last Supper, taking into account that it is highly probable that his version, like those of the gospels, has been shaped by later experience of the Eucharist. You can get an idea of the two traditions by placing them together.

Mark and [Matthew]

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them [the disciples] and said, 'Take, [eat] this is my body.' Then he took the cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and all of them drank from it. He said to them /[saying 'Drink from this, all of you]. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many [for the forgiveness of sins]. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

Paul and Luke

The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, and in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you he was proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.’

1 Corinthians 11.23-24

‘He said to them “I have really desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God”. Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes”. Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”. And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Luke 22.15

So used are we to the simplified, stylised account that it is easy to overlook that in the Luke/Paul tradition, and in keeping with the structure of a Jewish meal, there is more than one cup of wine. In Luke's version the first, shared cup comes before the breaking of bread, while the words about a new covenant in his blood are spoken over the second, celebratory cup coming ‘after supper’. Paul’s account mentions only that final cup, taken after the meal, and as in Luke the final drink is the occasion for the words about the inauguration of a new covenant in his blood. In the Old Testament, (the covenant was the contract between the Jewish people and God, and Jesus is announcing that the covenant will be renewed and its terms changed through his death). The version in Mark and Matthew has a simpler pattern, with bread and wine being treated in parallel with the same stylised formula ‘This is my body’/This is my blood’, and the bread mentioned first. The reference to the covenant is still there despite the beginning of the formula differing from the Luke/Paul tradition. Mark/Matthew probably represents a simplification of the text in the context of a stylised liturgical account, to which detail about exactly how Jesus spoke over the cup, and indeed, how many cups were taken and when, was no longer relevant. The command or request to 'do this' in remembrance of Jesus is found only in the Luke/Paul tradition.

From the text of the mass:

‘On the day before he was to suffer, he took the bread in his holy and venerable hands, and with eyes raised to heaven to you, O God, his almighty Father, giving you thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying: 'Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given for you.'

In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took this precious chalice into his holy and venerable hands, and once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying: 'Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.'

This ancient composite version of Jesus' words is focused exclusively on the specifically eucharistic aspect of the Last Supper and does not include the references, common to both traditions, to eating and drinking together in the kingdom of God, or to a new covenant being established through his death, substituting the words 'for the forgiveness of sins', which is not in any of the accounts of the Last Supper. It does, however include Jesus' request that they do this in memory of him^.

THE ASSEMBLY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

The Greek word for 'church' is ekklesia, meaning 'assembly', and it is striking how Jesus’ closest followers are shown gathered together, assembled, at all the key moments from the Resurrection to Pentecost. They are already a congregation. On the evening of the first Easter Sunday, all except Thomas are present, hiding behind locked doors when Jesus is suddenly standing there among them (John 20.19; see also Luke 24.36.), and when he returns to his Father at the Ascension, he takes leave of the small group of his followers, who afterwards return together to the upstairs room in the house in which they are staying It is not clear from the text whether it is the same house in which they had been hiding when Jesus had appeared to them. In this upstairs room, we are told, they were in constant prayer, so it has become a place of worship.

Interestingly, Luke explicitly mentions that it was a mixed group: in addition to the apostles 'they' includes 'certain women ' (Acts 1.14), one of whom was Mary the mother of Jesus. It is part of Luke’s core message that women had a place at the heart of the Christian Way. It is presumably the same group which experiences the descent of the Holy Spirit:

'When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place' (Acts 2.1) and 'All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.4). The missionary activity described in Acts which is first addressed to the Jews, and only then to gentiles when most Jewish congregations reject the preaching of the gospel, (Acts 13.14on-46; 14.1). Although Jesus’ followers continued to attend both the Temple, until it was destroyed in the Roman suppression of the Jewish uprising of 66 AD (Acts 2.46; 5.21), and synagogue (until forced out), they also met separately in private houses (Acts 2.46; 20.9; I Cor 16.19), often at night (Acts 20.7). Their collective worship is briefly described:'They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, … to the breaking of bread and prayer.' (Acts 2.42).

The breaking of bread

The term ‘breaking of bread’ is used of a distinctively Christian form of religious service, or part of one, in the very earliest days of the community (it was quite soon replaced by ‘Eucharist’, the Geek word for ‘thanksgiving’). Luke’s story of the two disciples who meet the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus illustrates the use of the term.The existence of a prototype liturgy has also coloured the gospel accounts of the feeding of the 5,000, whatever it originally signified.

‘He looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the crowds. And all ate and were filled.’ (Matthew 14:19 – 20)]

Note the other two aspects of the worship mentioned alongside the breaking of bread in that very short summary: first, prayer, and then the apostles’ teaching, early forms of what would become the New Testament.

On the road to Emmaus

Beginning with Moses and all prophets, he interpreted to then the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, 'Stay with us, because is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.' So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?' That same hour they got up and return to Jerusalem; and they found the 11 and the companions gathered together. They were saying, 'the Lord has risen indeed, and his appeared Simon!' Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of bread.'(Luke 24.13 –35)

This brilliantly told story brings out the connection already noted between the resurrection and the Eucharist. First, it is how the church will know and experience Jesus Christ after Pentecost, recognising him in the breaking of bread. But there is more: when he talks to the two disciples, Jesus outlines his place in the prophecies of the Old Testament. The two disciples in the story experience a version of a religious service comprising reference to the scriptures, a personalised ‘sermon’ and the breaking of bread or Eucharist, revealing the risen Christ.

THE EUCHARIST IN THE SECOND CENTURY

Liturgical traditions in the early years of the church's existence were oral rather than written, so there are very few sources from the earliest times. The use of structured, prepared and presumably largely memorised spoken material can be seen in Justin Martyr's remarkable description of a second century Eucharistic service. It confirms the overall shape revealed in the New Testament. We get a glimpse of the ministers: a Reader, the President, who, in keeping with that designation does chair the proceedings but also gives the homily based on the Readings and says the Eucharistic Prayer, and then there are several Deacons, responsible for distributing Communion.

There was no introductory rite or prayer (this remained the case for a remarkably long time). The first item in the service were the Readings from the ‘memoirs of the apostles’ the New Testamrent) and the 'writings of the prophets' (Old Testament) which lasted ‘for as long as time permits’, so they were not fixed,. It seems the Reader had a certain time slot and stopped, or was stopped, when that time was up. They were probably read on a continuous basis, going through a book of the Bible from beginning to end over some weeks.

The President then preached on the Readings and after this homily or sermon the congregation stood for prayers. Then came the offertory, when bread and wine was brought for the President to pray over, offering prayers and thanksgivings [Eucharistic Prayer],’according to his ability’ (ad lib but structured to a template). Communion was then distributed to all present, using the elements ‘over which thanks have been given’. Afterwards, the deacons took it to the homes of those members of the community who could not be present,

^{^[1]} Justin Martyr Chapter LXVI in OHCW 505.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIERITZ K-H ‘Liturgik’ Berlin 2004 (278-323)

BRADSHAW P and JOHNSON M ‘The Eucharistic Liturgies. Their Evolution and Interpretation’ Collegeville 2012 (26-66)

CHADWICK H ‘The Penguin History of the Christian Church 1: The Early Church’ London (9-31; 258-280)

DIX G ‘The Shape of the Liturgy’ London 2005 (48-120 )

FUERST A ‘Die Liturgie der alten Kirche. Geschichte und Theologie‘ Muenster 2008 (9-46; 80-!01)

JUNGMANN J ‘The Mass of the Roman Rite’ Volume 1 Notre Dame IN 2012 17-139; (169-195)

JOHNSON M “The Apostolic Tradition” in OHCW 2006

METZGER M ‘'History of the Liturgy. The Major Stages ' Collegeville 1997 (1-73)

MESSNER R ‘Einfuerhung in die Liturgiewissenschaft‘ Paderborn 2009 (150-172)