Why do we call a Eucharistic celebration “Mass”?

  Some of us remember the dismissal of the Latin Mass: “Ite, missa est” which meant “Go, you are sent.”  The same root is found in emissary, an agent sent on a specific mission.  Today we celebrate Mission Sunday, remembering those who have been sent to preach the Good News.  At each Eucharistic celebration, we are sent forth.  But sent to do what?

  Where is your mission field?  Perhaps it is an office, a classroom, a hospital, a football field, your home,  a restaurant, a business meeting, a grocery store, a shopping mall, your workplace.

  Jesus proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God.  This term is used only once in the Old Testament, and 67 times in the New Testament.  Perhaps the best explanation of the Kingdom is “the way God would have things.”  We, as laity, have a mission to transform the world, so that by our words and actions, the world becomes more “as God would have things.”  Thy kingdom come.

  We gather together each week to read from our instruction manual, the Word of God, and to hear the Word related to our lives in the homily.  We offer bread and wine, the work of human hands.  And we offer the work of our daily lives.  God accepts our gifts, transforms them into the Body and Blood of Jesus, the food to sustain us on our journey.   Equipped and energized, we are once again sent forth. The church is like Campaign Headquarters.  The object is not to stay in headquarters, but to go out and win.  We are on a mission from God.

                                                                      Jean Mowbray