About the Mass Series: Communion Rite: Part 13:‘The Rite of Peace’.

 ABOUT THE MASS VOL2

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                            Communion Rite: Part 13:‘The Rite of Peace’.

The Church is a community of Christians joined together by the Spirit in love.  It needs to express, deepen and restore its peaceful unity before eating the one Body of the Lord. The priest, with extended hands says aloud the prayer: 

 ‘Lord Jesus Christ, you said to you apostles, I leave you peace, my peace I give you.  Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom where you live for ever and ever’.

Christ offers us His peace. Asking Christ not to look on our sins indicates our unworthiness for such a gift, and yet, through the faith of the Church He makes us worthy through the peace and unity of His kingdom.

 Then the sign of peace is exchanged. It is an opportune time to signify communion in peace and mutual love. Of course, the sign of peace was dispensed with during covid and in some churches has not been reinstated in the same form ( ie parishioners shaking hands).  However, a smile, a nod of the head, looking at the person sincerely are all good ways to exchange the sign of peace if you do not feel comfortable shaking hands.  We need to remember what we are doing here.  Jesus has offered us His peace and by offering the sign of peace, we are participating in the opportunity to express, deepen and restore peace unity before receiving Jesus in Holy Communion.  We are offering to fellow parishioners Christ’s peace to them.  It can be very powereful if we allow Jesus to work in us as we give the sign of peace- His Peace.

The Hebrew word for peace is ‘shalom, namely all possible prosperity, the state of a person who lives in complete harmony with nature, self and God.  Since the risen Christ is the source of all peace, this gesture expresses faith that Christ is present in the congregation.  It is both a call to reconciliation and unity as well as a seal, which ratifies the very meaning of church, whose members both find and pray for peace in one another.

According to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2007), the mode of exchanging the sign of peace is left to local usage. (p.29).

 For some people the sign of peace has been a distraction at Mass. Recently I had someone laugh coldly at me giving them the sign of peace. I felt very hurt and it was challenging to let the feeling go.  I wanted to receive communion in a peace filled state. It was not good preparation.  For other people it was a blessing.  One true story of ‘blessing’ when it was first introduced in the Mass is as follows:

 ‘There was a young man who was interested in a lovely girl who attended the Saturday evening Mass.  The girl showed no particular interest in the young man concerned.  The young man asked the priest ‘would we be having the sign of peace tonight Fr’.This went on for some weeks and it intrigued the priest. He asked the young man why, only to hear ‘I will sit in the seat next to her or behind her and she will have to give me the sign of peace’.  Sometime later, they were married.

 

‘Shalom’.