Canon of The Mass - Mystical Interpretations

Mystical Interpretations

The historian of liturgy Adrian Fortescue wrote that, after the Bible, the Canon of the Mass was what received the most elaborate mystical explanations. By the time they began the Canon was unquestioned as the most sacred rite of the Church and, with no regard for its historical development, they conceived mystic and allegorical reasons for its divisions, expressions, rites, just as it stood - even for its initial letter T.

These interpretations inevitably disagreed among themselves and contradicted each other, dividing the Canon where they liked - as far as possible by a holy number, such as 3, 7 or 12 - and then linked each of these divisions to some epoch of our Lord's life, or to one of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, or - if the divisions made are 8 - to one of the Beatitudes. The arrangements are extremely ingenious and, though artificial, can be quite edifying, poetic and beautiful.

Some of the principal authors of such interpretations were William Durandus, Bishop of Mende (whose work is important as an account of the prayers and ceremonies of the thirteenth century), Benedict XIV and Cardinal John Bona. A favourite idea is that the Ordinary to the Sanctus, with its readings, represents Christ's public life and teaching; the Canon is a type of the passion and death, and is said in silence, because, though Christ taught plainly, he did not open his mouth when he was accused and suffered. From Durandus comes the idea of dividing the Mass according to the four kinds of prayer mentioned in 1 Timothy 2:1: it is an "obsecratio" (supplication) to the Secret, an "oratio" (prayer) to the Pater Noster, a "postulatio" (intercession) to the Communion, and a "gratiarum actio" (thanksgiving) to the end. Benedict XIV and many others divide the Canon itself into four sets of threefold prayers:

• "Te igitur", "Memento vivorum", "Communicantes";
• "Hanc igitur", "Quam oblationem", "Qui pridie";
• "Unde et memores", "Supra quæ", "Supplices te rogamus";
• "Memento defunctorum", "Nobis quoque", "Per quem hæc omnia".

This gives the mystic numbers 4, 3, and 12. So again each separate expression finds a mystic meaning. Why do we say "rogamus ac petimus" in the "Te igitur"? "Rogamus" shows humility, "petimus" confidence (Odo Cameracensis; "Exp. in Can. Missæ", dist. iii). Why do we distinguish "hæc dona" and "hæc munera"? "Dona" because God gives them to us, "munera" because we offer them back to Him (Gihr, 552, n. 5). Why is there no Amen after the "Nobis quoque peccatoribus"? Because the angels say it at that place (Albertus Magnus, "Summa de off. Missæ", III, c. ix). "Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso est tibi . . . omnis honor et gloria" signifies in its triple form that our Lord suffered three kinds of indignities in His Passion—in His body, soul, and honour (Ben. XIV, 227). Historically, when these prayers were first composed, such reduplications and repetitions were really made for the sake of the rhythm which we observe in all liturgical texts.

Fortescue remarked that the medieval explanations are interesting as showing with what reverence people studied the text of the Canon and how, when every one had forgotten the original reasons for its forms, they still kept the conviction that the Mass is full of venerable mysteries and that all its clauses mean more than common expressions. He added that in this conviction the sometimes naive medieval interpreters were eminently right.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.