About the Mass vol 2: Introductory Rite: The Greeting Part 2.

In last week’s post, I provided an overview of the introductory rite. In today’s post, I wish to explore more fully the texts

With the new Translation of the Mass, the priest now greets the congregation with one of the greetings such as:

'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God 

and the  communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all’

or ‘’Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’’

or “‘the Lord be with you.’’

Let us examine these greetings:

In the first greeting, there is a change of only one word- from fellowship to communion. The greek translation of the word communion is koinonia, which is used in the New Testaments to refer to the relationship among Christians and to their relationship to Christ in the Spirit. This greeting is scripture based coming from 2 Corinthians 13:13.   

We are used to using the word Communion to refer to Holy Communion. Holy Communion is an act and takes place in the context of communion, which is the Church.  This is important to appreciate  and understand  in the context of why the Church does not allow other Christians to receive Holy Communion.

Let us now examine the Second Greeting

‘’Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’’

Last week, I commented that this greeting came from Scripture Rm 1:7  and from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians I Corinthians 1:3. However, with further exploration, this greeting is more widespread in the New Testament.  It also appears Cor 1:2, Gal 1:3, Eph 1:2, Phil 1:2, 2 Thess 1:2, and Phil:1:3.  Other places in the New Testament include: Thes 1:1, I Pet 1:2, Rev 1:4, 1 Tim 1:2, 2 Tim 1: 2, Tit 1:4, Jn 1:3.

The Second Greeting seems unusual in its wording in that it has two nouns grace and peace with the pronoun to you in between it.  However, it appears in the New Testament times 8 times in this form, and is a standard form of greeting among Christians in New Testament times.  It appears several times in the letters of St Paul, letters of St John and Peter and at the beginning of the book of Apocalypse.  

When the Scripture was translated into latin, this word order from the Greek ‘’ Grace to you and peace’’  was retained in the latin. This greeting seemed to indicate that it was like a password between Christians.  It was the distinctive Christian greeting.  In other words, using this phase indicated that you knew the language of the Christian community.  When we learn any language, we learn the highly conventional formula for the greeting rather than the spontaneous.  

It is interesting to note that this word order was retained at the time of the reformation when the scriptures started to be translated into the vernacular. Martin Luther, the translators of  both the Catholic version (Dowry) and anglican version retained it.

So, when we hear this greeting used at Mass we may recall that it

• is a scripture based greeting widely used in the New Testament.
• was a distinctive Christian greeting  for Christians in the New Testament. 
• is passed on to us through Scripture providing continuity from the earliest times in the Church.
• can become our own Christian greeting as we own it in our own time. We may choose to use it not only at Mass but at Parish Meetings, Prayer groups and the like, as well as allowing it to echo within our own being in times of great sadness, despondancy, despair and in times of joy and hope.

The priest in the name of Christ is offering us two gifts grace to you  and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is in the inflection of the voice and how it is phrased that we may become more aware of its beauty.  However, regardless of how it is inflected by the priest, let us be thankful for the gifts of grace and peace which comes from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will explore further with you the third greeting in my post next week.