A New Approach to the Preface

As we enter into our reflection on the second action of Jesus, 'he said the blessing' we take up the Preface, the introductory dialogue and praise that constitutes the first part of the Eucharistic Prayer. "Well begun is half done" and so special attention needs to be given to the way we handle the Preface if we wish to pray the entire Eucharistic Prayer fruitfully. First of all, we remember that it begins with a dialogue between the Celebrant and the assembly. This requires that the Celebrant make a concerted effort to articulate loudly and distinctly, and maintain eye contact with the people while dialoging with them. Unfortunately, it often happens that the Celebrant is busy turning the pages of the Missal searching for the right place while he utters the words of the dialogue, thus getting off to a bad start and losing the attention of the people.

Of all the parts of the old Roman Eucharistic Prayer, the Preface is the one section that has most fully retained the character of the early Eucharist. In it the model given by Hyppolitus is kept alive, and so is the berakah of the apostolic community and the form of prayer that Jesus himself used so often. The dialogue introduction is followed by praise of God for his saving deeds past and present, and is summed up in the concluding angelic acclamation of the thrice-holy God. The Preface thus has three parts: dialogue, praise and Sanctus.

The Introductory Dialogue

It would greatly help if the assembly understood the meaning of their responses used in the dialogue. E.g. the Preface begins with the greeting: 'The Lord be with you.' This opening wish for God's blessing together with its response, is modeled on Jewish good wishes of peace. It is also a prayer-greeting that we come across throughout the pages of Sacred Scripture. It is offered when an important task or mission is being entrusted to a person. Thus, Saul commissions young David to engage in battle with the mighty Goliath, saying: "Go, and the Lord be with you!" In other words, the work that David is about to do, viz. his encounter with Goliath, is being undertaken not just in a private capacity, but rather as an ambassador of God and in the name of the entire nation. This, first of all, gives David the backing he so badly needed at this juncture, reminding him that the Lord would not let him down since he goes on this mission in the Lord's name. But it also makes young David realize his tremendous responsibility to the Lord and to the people. If he failed or chickened out, God's name would be dishonoured and the entire nation of Israel would suffer the consequences. No wonder then that David says to Goliath: "You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down" (1 Sam. 18:37-47).

Applying this to the phrase in the Preface, the implication then is that if the community sets out to praise and thank God, it is a commission entrusted to them by the Lord himself and that they do this in the name of the whole human race. If priest and people could be a little more aware of this, there is no doubt that they would pray the prayer a lot more respectfully. It is the Spirit himself who makes the praise to well up from our hearts in a genuine acknowledgement of God's goodness and love.

The 'lift up your hearts' is an Old Testament injunction (Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven - Lam. 3:41) or a reflection of Paul's admonition: 'Seek the things that are above … Set your minds on things that are above' (Col. 3:1-2). St. Cyprian comments on the 'Lift up your hearts': "For this reason, when the time comes for the preface before the (Eucharistic) prayer, the priest prepares the minds of the brethren by saying 'Lift up your hearts,' and the people reply 'We have lifted them up to the Lord.' They are thus admonished that their thoughts should be only of the Lord." (PL 4:557).

Through this expression 'Lift up your hearts' the community is invited to have their 'reasons' for praising God ready. God blesses us in so many different ways - in fact, every moment of our existence is a blessing from him. What is important is that we recognize his blessings and so we need to pick out the important ones for which we wish to praise him in this particular Eucharist. Evidently there will not be time enough to pick out all of God's blessings at this particular juncture and hence the people should be encouraged to prepare these reasons beforehand, even as they come to Church for the Eucharist. Again, after the homily in which the loving action of God on our behalf has been highlighted, the silence that follows could be utilized to single out God's blessings for which we want to thank him on this particular occasion. The key idea however, is clear: the more distinctly we are aware of God's blessings the more heartfelt and meaningful our praise and thanks, not only during the Eucharist, but also all through the day.

Since the assembly professes that they are ready with all their reasons lined up, the Celebrant continues: 'Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.' And having obtained their consent, not just giving him permission as it were, but primarily assuring him that they will join in, the Celebrant begins the actual praise and thanks of God. We can never afford to forget that while all our blessings come 'through Jesus Christ, our Lord', our praise also goes up to the Father through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is not only our spokesperson, but also our greatest reason for thanking God; if it were not for him and his steadfast obedience, we would not be gathered together to praise God.

The response 'It is right and fitting' is of Hellenistic origin. In the civic assemblies of the Greek polis or cities, axios (right, worthy) was the acclamation of agreement. Thus, this expression and the Amen at the end of the prayer are closely linked, since both manifest the fraternal communion and ecclesial unity of all who are praying together. God is the only One whose actions are flawless and so it is right and fitting for us his creatures to praise his greatness. Besides, when we articulate this praise, we are invited to reflect more deeply on the marvelous quality of God's works. We also learn from him how to give of our best and our all in everything we do.

The Praise Itself

The naming of God's redemptive actions is followed in the third part of the Preface by the conclusion: the Sanctus. This hymn-like part of the Preface is very old, but perhaps not very original. It resembles the Gloria in that it begins with praise of God that is taken from the Bible (Isa. 6:3); then it takes up various liturgical acclamations and combines them into a hymn. Hosanna is the Greek form of the Hebrew hosian-na and originally meant 'rescue us, help us.' (Ps. 118:25) In the synagogal liturgy, however, the petition had already been turned into praise of God, the Helper. We see a reflection of this in the shouts of the people acclaiming Jesus at the triumphant entry into Jerusalem: 'Hosanna to the Son of David.' (Mt. 21:9). In the context of the Eucharistic Prayer, the 'coming' referred to in the next Scripture quotation looks ahead to the awaited sacramental presence of the Lord in the Eucharistic gifts and also to his final coming in glory.

The second part of the Sanctus which begins with the 'Blessed is he …' is acclamatory in nature. The very word 'blessed' (Hebrew baruch) echoes the Jewish prayer in which the praise offered by the President was always followed by this kind of agreement on the part of the people. We recall here the response: 'Blessed be God, for ever' that is found in the Presentation of Gifts. Similarly, in the Letter to the Romans, the mention of God's name impels Paul, who never totally abandoned the positive elements of his Jewish upbringing, to follow the synagogal custom and immediately add: '(May he) be blessed for ever, Amen' (9:5).

Conclusion

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