This Mass is offered for … ?

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Just how many people are being remembered during each Mass?

Singer Barry Manilow, in 1976, wrote a song titled “This One’s for You.” It was written for his grandfather who had passed away. The lyrics in part read: “This one’s for you / wherever you are / to say that nothing’s been the same / since we’ve been apart.” Registering a solid 96 percent on the schmaltz meter, the song was a minor hit.

In the church, we have our own version of “This One’s for You” – though more powerful and efficacious than any song or good wish could ever be: What we commonly called, “Mass intentions.” So for all of you who have wondered about the meaning of Mass intentions, well, this one’s for you.

 

  • Simply remembering?

I am sure you have all heard the phrase, “this Mass is being offered for…” or “We remember in a special way … for whom this Mass is being offered.” You may have wondered at one time or another what that actually means.

Now one might think, from sense of the language used, that we are simply “remembering” someone at

Father Jorge Hernandez celebrates Mass in Holy Family Catholic Parish in Gaza City, June 6. (CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey) See GAZA-HERNANDEZ July 17, 2015.
(CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey)

Mass, and praying for his or her soul in a generic sense. But that’s not quite right; it is way more than that. You see, the graces and fruits of that Mass are actually being applied to that person.

In the history of the church, the idea of Masses being offered for a person has faced some bumpy roads, especially from some who had rejected the supernaturality of the Mass and the priesthood. With this background, I want to write a little about the history of what we commonly call “Mass intentions.”

 

  • Offer you can’t refuse

Since the earliest days of the church, Masses have been offered for the souls of the dead, as a way to ease them along and support them, as they make their way from purgatory to heaven. Over time, this idea of “Mass offering” or “Mass intention” became more formalized, and led to the long-standing practice of a parishioner making a donation to a parish to have a Mass “offered” for a person they so designate.

 

  • Who’s on first?

Thus, at Mass, you may often hear us praying for several folks from the parish who may have died in the past weeks, but that is usually capped-off by a phrase like “and at this Mass we pray in a special way for the repose of the soul of ___ for whom this Mass is offered.” That person, for whom the Mass “is being offered” is the primary person for whom the priest is, by his intention, offering the Mass.

So, you may ask, is the Mass only being offered for that one person, alone? No. The Mass is also being offered (as we hear in the Eucharistic prayer), for the pope, the bishop, the clergy, the faithful, the church and the dead, among others.

 

  • Playing the numbers

Thus arises the question: If the Mass is being offered for a specific person, then how is it also being offered for all of those other categories of people? A very good question. And the best way that I can answer this is to reduce this concept to numeric-values, which I don’t like to do in spiritual matters.

And so, if a Mass is being offered for the late Mr. John Doe, he gets at least 51 percent of the fruits and graces from the Mass, and the other persons and groups noted above get 49 percent or less.

 

  • Empire strikes back

How did we get to this understanding of things? Well, it is time to step into the Way Back Machine and set the dials for the year 1786. Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, doing the political bidding for the Austrian Emperor, sought to invoke a sense of national supremacy over the church (kind of like Henry VIII did in England, but in a more nuanced manner, sometimes called Febronianism or Josephinism). In his effort to effect the changes that he sought, Grand Duke Leopold with political support from a local bishop, called the Synod of Pistoia.

 

  • Say, what?

At the Synod of Pistoia, several propositions were put forth (one asserted that the pope’s role in the church was merely ministerial, not authoritative; another called for the abolition of monastic orders).

In the midst of many assertions, it was put forth that this synod rejected the church’s teaching which held that the priest celebrating Mass it is able “to apply the fruit of the sacrifice” to a specific person. The synod also added that, contrary to church teaching, it is false to believe that the person for whom the priest offers the Mass “will receive from it special fruit [from that Mass].”

Needless to say, most of the bishops in the region, and indeed throughout Europe, rejected this synod and its assertions. More specifically, Pope Pius VI was more riled than a porcupine in a balloon factory. And so, on August 28, 1794, the pope addressed this very question about the teaching in a papal document, a Constitution, called “Auctorem fidei (“Our Faith). ”

 

  • 85 got 86’d

Amongst the 85, count ’em 85, corrections made by Pope Pius VI regarding the assertions of the Synod of Pistoia, was item 30. That item took aim at the Synods assertions regarding “The application of the fruit of the sacrifice” (i.e., the matter of Mass intentions). The pope noted:

  • That the Synod was wrong in claiming that the person for whom the Mass is offered by the priest does not receive any special commemoration because the priest can’t direct the Mass in that manner.
  • That the teaching of the church on this matter is clear: namely, that a person or persons, for whom a priest offers a Mass benefits “more than any other” by the prayers of that Mass.
  • That the person, or persons, for whom the priest offers the Mass will, in fact, receive a “special fruit” from that Mass.
  • That the assertion by the Synod of Pistoia on this matter was “false, rash, dangerous, injurious to the church, [and] leading into the error elsewhere condemned in Wycliffe.”

Regarding this last item, you may ask, who or what is a Wycliffe? And what was “the error elsewhere condemned?” John Wycliffe was a theologian who was a radical dissident in the church in the 14th-15th centuries; among the myriad of his false teachings were that “God must obey the Devil” and God could only create a limited number of souls and not go beyond that number. In any event, 45 of Wycliffe’s false teachings were condemned, on May 4, 1415, by the Council of Constance. Among these was his assertion that “Special prayers applied to one person by [priests] or religious are not of more benefit to that person than general prayers.”

Thus, Pope Pius VI, recalling that Council, re-stated the condemnation, and further clarified it.

 

  • Imperial Retreat

The actions taken up by the Synod of Pistoia were laid to rest by Pope Pius. Ultimately that synod proved to be the last gasp for nationalistic (i.e., king over pope) grasping of control of the church. By 1790, and the death of the Austrian Emperor Joseph, “Josephinism” – for which the Synod of Pistoia was a tool – died a quiet death.

 

  • Passion Fruit

And so, reversing the Way Back Machine and jumping back to the present day, with the papal document, “Auctorem Fidei,” still applicable, I would commend to you that those persons – those loved ones – for whom Masses are offered are more than merely remembered or commemorated. Their souls receive the “fruits” of the Mass – the blessings and graces that God bestows through the Mass. By the grace and merits of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, they receive aid and assistance, blessings and grace, as they make their way to God’s kingdom. And all by the grace of God.

 

Father Lentini is pastor of Holy Cross Church in Dover and Immaculate Conception Church in Marydel, Md.