Mass

[MichaelFilo]

What importance does the putting of the Bread into the Wine hold? Can it make the mass invalid, or the consecration? Is this universal(inquiring about England mostly).

God bless,

Mikey

[Adeodatus]

Dear Mikey,

Putting a small part of the consecrated Host into the chalice of consecrated Precious Blood is called "commingling". It happens after the consecration, and whether the commingling takes place or not, it cannot invalidate the Mass or the consecration of the Body and Blood of Our Lord. The commingling does not only take place in England, but throughout the world where Mass is celebrated in the Latin or Syrian rites.

The commingling is a symbolic act.
1a. In the liturgy at Rome, round about the 8th century, it signified 2 things. At the sign of Peace, the Pope would drop a fragment of a consecrated Host from the [b]previous[/b] Mass into the chalice consecrated at the [b]present[/b] Mass. In this way the continuity of the Mass was expressed symbolically: the Mass is the same yesterday and today---it is the one, unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ on the Cross at Calvary, celebrated throughout time.

1b. But at the same Mass celebrated by the Pope, the Pope would send fragments of consecrated Hosts to the other churches in Rome so that the priests celebrating Mass at these churches could add these fragments to their chalices at the same point in the Mass, at the sign of Peace. In this way, the Pope symbolised the fact that these other churches in Rome are all in communion with him because they [b]literally[/b] get Communion (the Eucharist) from the Pope, and their Masses are offered in union with his.

The commingling in this case shows 2 things: (1) that Mass is celebrated throughout time, all the way back to Jesus; (2) that Mass is celebrated throught space, throughout the world, in the communion of the Catholic Church.

2. In the Syrian liturgies and Masses there is another symbolic explanation of the commingling. The separate consecration of Host and Precious Blood show Christ to be dead symbolically----because they are consecrated separately ("This is my body" interval "This is my blood") they show forth the death of Christ when His body and blood were separated. The commingling shows the Resurrection of Christ, because it symbolically unites His Sacred Body and His Precious Blood by putting a fragment of the Host into the Precious Blood in the chalice. This reminds all Catholics that the Body and Blood they receive is certainly the one sacrificed for us, but also that it is Risen Flesh and Glorified Blood that they receive, the flesh and blood of our Risen Lord.

Some Eastern Masses (Byzantine rite) show this same symbolism by adding some hot water to the chalice, so that the Precious Blood is warm when it is drunk, to show that it is the Blood of the Risen and Living Jesus. They call this symbol the "zeon", [ZAY-on] (which is a cool word to know for Scrabble).