MASS CONFUSION ABOUT MASS

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24)

Not long ago, I stumbled upon a strange on-line posting. It included a photo of the residence in Framingham, MA in which my family and I used to reside. (The photo had to have been taken about ten years ago.) Along with the photo was a short article promoting me as the pastor of a church which (supposedly) meets at that residence! (Now, I did pastor a church in Framingham for many years, but I never held church services at that residence!) The thing that really amazed me is that in promoting the worship services I (supposedly) was leading at that residence it stated that I "say mass" there every Sunday! I posted the link to that erroneous piece on my Facebook page with a blurb about how wrong and incorrect its information was!

Shortly after I'd posted about that on Facebook, I heard from my friend (and fellow Canton High Class of 1972 graduate) Ellen Ronayne. She said she'd recently read something about a Congregational Church in Quincy where the author incorrectly stated they had "mass" there! The ignorance of the most basic matters of religious practice, protocol, and decorum by today's average American is, in my opinion, appalling! I honestly wonder if it's the whole business of "taking religion out of the public schools" that's the cause of a lot of this stuff! Granted, in the pre-1963 days, maybe there was too much of the "establishment of religion" in public schools. I can still remember that in the earliest grades, we recited the Lord's Prayer; and Christmas was observed complete with carol singing. Maybe that was a bit extreme, but today's kids learn that "pilgrims are people who go on long journeys" and often learn little or nothing about the religious convictions of the Pilgrims and Puritans, or of Roger Williams and the reason he founded Rhode Island, or of the intricate details of the Protestant reformation, or of a number of basic Bible passages such as the 23rd Psalm that culturally we should all be familiar with, for that matter! So, modern Americans ignorantly believe any religious service for the masses is a "mass"- or at least that any religious service for anyone even remotely Christian is a "mass"!

If you go to Wikipedia and read their piece on "Mass (liturgy)" you'll get some great clarification on the subject. In fact, "mass" has nothing to do with the fact that religious masses are present! The word is from the Latin "missa" which means "dismissal". At the end of the mass, the people were to go out and live out the Christian mission on earth, hence the origin of the name. But "mass" is a term that is never used by most Protestants! It's mainly a Roman Catholic term, although it has been known to be used by Lutherans, Anglicans, and "western rite Orthodox" churches. (I don't have the space or time here and now to explain what a "western rite Orthodox" church is!) In order for a Christian religious service to be a mass it must include "The Holy Eucharist" (that is Holy Communion) according the Roman Catholic theology. Now, this may come as a shock, but not all Protestant churches observe Holy Communion every Sunday morning. Some do, but many do not. In the Assemblies of God, the church in which I'm Ordained, there are a few churches which have Holy Communion every Sunday, but I'd say at least 95% have Holy Communion only once a month. That's also true of most Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, and Nazarene churches. That practice of only once a month communion comes from reformer John Calvin who believed that having Holy Communion every Sunday caused believers to trivialize it. Calvin felt that having it monthly and making kind of a big deal about it would cause the worshiper to be much more serious and devout about Communion.

Now, of course, the Catholic Church believes in "The Holy Eucharist". In traditional Roman Catholic theology, the bread and wine actually become Christ's body and blood. In most Protestant churches, the elements are viewed as symbolic elements; nothing more and nothing less. A serious Roman Catholic would never think of Communion at most Protestant churches as "The Holy Eucharist"! And, a serious Roman Catholic would never think of a Baptist or Congregational or Methodist or Assemblies of God service as a "mass"!

I know that readers may think this all gets too confusing and complicated. Maybe it does. The Bible passage I opened with is from Jesus' conversation with the "woman at the well" in Samaria. She tried to "push her religion" on him, which was indeed pretty different from traditional Judaism, but Jesus steered things back to focusing on really worshiping God and having a relationship with Him. Anyway, I hope I have not "muddied the waters" here but if you're one who calls any Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox service a "mass" I hope this has been food for thought for you!