"Active Participation" at Mass is Interior

Why extraordinary ministers, parish busy bodies, and others like them completely miss the point

I want to preface this article by saying that this is not a condemnation for anyone who has volunteered at their parish to help with the Liturgy. While I wouldn’t recommend being an extraordinary minister (EM) of the Eucharist, I understand the sentiment behind laity volunteering for the role and others like it. Even if it’s misguided, EMs, lectors, etc- for the most part- are seeking to provide a spiritual good for their priest and parish.

If you are in one of the roles that I mention in this article or something similar, maybe this can be an invitation to consider alternate means of helping at your parish.

The ministerial priesthood and the royal priesthood

There are two kinds of priesthood in Catholicism- the ministerial priesthood and the royal priesthood (sometimes referred to as the common priesthood or priesthood of the faithful).

The ministerial priesthood is very easy to recognize. It’s the men who wear all black and a small, white collar and lead the Church at the Mass. These are men who live out the vocation and Sacrament of Holy Orders. Through their ordination and consecration, they are set apart to lead God’s people in worship and sacrifice to the Almighty. Every Catholic is familiar with them.

On the other hand, the royal priesthood is any baptized member of the Church. We hear the words at Baptism “I anoint you priest, prophet, and king”, but the reality of that anointing is often lost on us.

To put it simply, Christ came as a priest, prophet, and king. When we are baptized into His body, we share in that three-fold office. The Catechism lays this out clearly:

“Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them”

With this role in mind, that of sharing in Christ’s priesthood, we understand that every time that we attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are being called to offer sacrifice along with the priest- albeit in a different way.

The ministerial priesthood is called to perform the Sacrifice at the physical altar, while the royal priesthood- the laity- are called to offer the sacrifice on the altar of their hearts.

It is first and foremost an interior, prayerful disposition of sacrifice that the laity is called to when they attend the Mass, and it isn’t a mild suggestion. The Catechism is explicit- it’s the laity’s responsibility, mission, and service to the Church.

That is what the Church meant when she called for her members to have “active participation” at the Mass. To take that suggestion and aim it towards exterior actions- like being an EM, for example- is to completely miss the point!

It’s what you give, not what you receive

Keeping that royal priestly responsibility in mind, it should follow that the interior disposition of offering sacrifice is the laity’s top priority when they come to Mass.

That priority will naturally come before any other concern at the Mass that the laity takes on through exterior forms of “active participation”: helping with Communion, worrying that the music is catchy and familiar, etc.

(For all you parents with young kids out there, I’m right there with you in struggling to focus with squirmy little kids! Keep bringing them to Mass, and just do your best to uphold that interior disposition of sacrifice!)

In my time discussing this issue, some people will push back and say something like, “What other people are doing at the Mass isn’t important. The music and preaching is secondary. I’m just at Mass to receive the Eucharist.” To be blunt, that’s a spiritually selfish, shallow approach.

The focus being only on what we receive from the Mass is not even the approach that the Church takes. In her precepts (essentially the bare minimum that someone must do in order to call himself Catholic), the Church places more of an emphasis on attending Mass, which is offering the interior sacrifice along with the priest, than receiving the Eucharist:

1st Precept- “Attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation”

3rd Precept- “Receive Holy Communion at least once a year, during the Easter Season

To be clear, the Church is ALWAYS encouraging us to receive the Eucharist if we are at Mass and in a state of grace. After all, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith! It is the Pearl of Great Price, and we should all be willing to die to defend Christ’s True Presence.

What I’m trying to say is that these precepts of the Church are meant to highlight what the Mass is actually about- giving God the worship and sacrifice that He deserves, not just receiving Jesus in the Eucharist.

If the Church makes it binding to attend Mass at least once a week every week and on Holy Days- roughly 60 days every year- but requires us to receive the Eucharist only one of those times- only 2% of the Masses that we are bound to attend every year- then there’s something that she is trying to tell us!

Interiorly, we need to join with the priest, offering sacrifice to God because it’s what He deserves. Receiving the Eucharist is holy, important, and necessary for Eternal Life, but it’s not the only reason that we attend Mass.

Therefore, the laity’s top priority should be on offering that interior sacrifice, not worrying about songs being catchy or having a smile on their face when they are acting as an EM.

So, where do we go from here?

The Church already has recommendations to help us offer this interior sacrifice

This might be a touchy topic, but I’m just going to dive into it:

The issue with a lot of the recent liturgical reforms- the music choices, Communion in the hand, extraordinary ministers, etc- is that they seemingly throw out the solutions that the Church provides from her 2,000 year history.

Everything that came to be a part of that Liturgical Tradition was geared towards the laity being prepared to offer the sacrifice of the Mass interiorly. There was a purpose to what the Church had done before the reforms of the 1960s. That doesn’t mean that everything was perfect before the recent Liturgical reforms, but there was undeniable history behind the practices of the time, and they stood up for centuries for a reason!

I am not of the opinion that the solution is to just put an axe to everything post-Vatican II in terms of Liturgy, but I will say that intense reforms to the Liturgy as it currently is celebrated in 99% of parishes are vital to the life of these communities. (Some people on the more traditional and more “liberal” sides of the Church may critique that opinion for various reasons. But please take it for what it is- just my opinion, not a dogmatic decree. After all, what do I know?)

What can’t be argued is that ignoring the Church’s traditional acts of piety and reverence has led to a lack of focus on the interior actions of the royal priesthood, and with it a large deficit in Catholics’ understanding of the Church’s doctrines, moral teachings, and recommendations.

A suggestion to restore the royal priesthood’s spiritual lives

Concrete solutions to this issue will need to be figured out by people who have done more research and have more experience. Implementing reforms requires surgical precision.

I’m not sure that a sweeping overhaul is the solution. At the same time, there is a need to seriously get the wheels turning on making the Mass a place of deeper contemplation and interior prayerfulness. The Church at the very least needs to get moving in that direction!

How exactly that plays itself out- I’m not sure. The best advice that I could offer is to go back to some of those old practices- Gregorian chant, kneeling for Communion, celebrating the Mass Ad Deum/Ad Orientem (meaning that the priest and laity all face the same direction at the Consecration and other parts of the Eucharistic prayer), etc.

St. John Cantius in Chicago is a great example of what parishes should strive towards in my opinion. They offer the TLM and Novus Ordo Masses, but treat both with equal reverence and dignity. Even if a parish can’t offer both forms of the Mass, doing what they can to make the Novus Ordo beautiful and reverent will go a LONG way.

I’ve personally seen a parish explode with parishioners when this approach was taken and then shrink back down when that approach was abandoned.

To summarize

The laity is at the Mass to first and foremost offer sacrifice to God because He deserves it. This requires an active participation that focuses on interior dispositions of offering sacrifice, not exterior participation in the Mass like an EM.

Yes, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, but Mass is about more than just receiving from God- it’s giving Him what He deserves. The Church binds us to Mass on Sundays every week and Holy Days, but she only requires us to receive Communion once a year.

The Church is wise. She already has the tools at her disposal to increase the interior prayerfulness of the royal priesthood at the Mass, but her clergy are largely ignoring those practices while wondering why people aren’t attending Mass anymore.

We the laity can only offer up our prayers and sacrifices at the Mass, petitioning God to enlighten others and create a more conducive atmosphere that encourages the true active participation of every member in attendance.

Let’s talk about it!

I want to hear what my readers think about this. Leave a comment! This is one of my favorite topics to discuss, and I want to see what others think. God bless!