The Mass: Liturgy Of The Word - Part II

We continue our examination of the second section of the Mass, The Liturgy of the Word. In general, the First Reading during Sunday Mass comes from the Old Testament. The exception to this is during the Easter Season, where we hear from the Acts of the Apostles as the Church begins to take form and spread.

You might think the Old Testament really has no relevance in Mass. Hasn’t it been superseded by the New Testament? Isn’t “New” better than “Old”? No, it is absolutely essential to hear from the Old Testament. Even though the Old Testament covers the time before the birth of Christ, God still speaks to us through the sacred Old Testament Scriptures, just as he does in the New.

A good place to start our understanding of this is to consider this famous quote about the Bible from St. Augustine: “The New Testament is in the Old concealed; the Old Testament is in the New revealed.” This means that the Old Testament functions as a prophetic vision of God’s ultimate plan for our salvation: that the history of God’s people, beginning with the first chosen ones, the Jewish people, would climax in the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The design of the readings at Mass each Sunday centers around the Gospel passage. The Church chose each Sunday’s Old Testament reading based on the principal of harmony. That first reading in some way is connected to the Gospel passage. Usually some event or teaching in that Old Testament passage prefigures the day’s Gospel reading. We therefore are led to a better understanding of God, Jesus and the Eucharist by being directed through that first reading. Therefore, let’s commit ourselves to a deeper appreciation of the first reading we hear at each and every Mass.

“The Old Testament was deliberately so oriented that it should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ.” - Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 122 (cf. Dei Verbum, no. 15)

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Contact me at eucharist@stmli.org.