Every time we participate in the Mass in its Ordinary Form, we hear the priest utter this phrase after the consecration of the elements: “The mystery of faith.” This phrase, originating in the sixth century, has been a constant feature of the liturgy we have used in the western rites of the Church. When the priest says this phrase at the Mass, we respond with one of three phrases, all of them emphasizing the Eucharist as the memorial of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ and our eager hope for His continual support. Yet, in conjunction with our readings today, this phrase helps us to understand more greatly the centrality of faith in our life and how the Eucharist aids us to be faithful and to be faith-filled.
When we hear the word “mystery”, we often think of detectives trying to solve a crime and discover the culprit. This offers a hint to us of the root meaning of the word, since it comes from the Greek μυστηριον, which means something hidden or secret. Anything that fell under the term μυστηριον was something which was not meant to be revealed except to those who were in the know. The Christians took up this term early on in the Church’s history to denote those beliefs and practices which are of a supernatural character, such that we could not understand them on our own. This is why the term became extended to the mystery of faith, which we find used in St. Paul’s first letter to Timothy. These mysteries could only be understood as such by those who were Christians.
Our Gospel helps us to understand why this is the case. Christ, in rebuking the Jews, tells them that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.” Our Lord reveals to us the beginnings of this belief which enables us to grasp the mysteries of faith. It is not of our own power or volition, but the gift of God the Father who created us. God draws us to Himself and to the one Church wherein dwells the wellspring of faith. It is not by our willing that we have received the faith, but by the will of God.
Yet that faith which we have initially received from the Father can be accepted or rejected by us. We see this in the soul which decides either to continue to practice the Catholic faith or to reject it and to search elsewhere, to its eternal detriment. That faith can also be increased or decreased, which leads us back to the Eucharist. Since, as we have seen before, Holy Communion is the source and the summit of the Christian faith, it is in the Eucharist, the bread of life, that we are able not only to find expression of our faith, but also to be given the grace necessary for our faith to be maintained and even to increase in relation to God. Just as earthly bread increases our strength so as to live as material beings, so too does the Eucharist increase our spiritual strength to live as spiritual beings.
If we are faithful Catholics, we will desire the Eucharist more fervently each day, because we believe what Christ proclaimed and what the Church has professed and maintained to our present day: that Jesus Christ is still among His people, nourishing them with His body and blood so as to draw them to Himself, most especially on the last day. St. Pio of Pietrelcina said, “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the Holy Mass.” It is in the Eucharist that we find our faith most eloquently expressed, but in a manner that only those with the grace of God are able to receive. To be a Catholic is to be one who is enveloped in the mystery of faith, most particularly the mystery of faith in the Eucharist, and who lives that faith out not merely in the church, but in every aspect of our lives.
Let us not grow slack, then, in our faith, but be nourished by the bread of life so that our faith may increase. Let us be nourished as Elijah was nourished in our first reading, so as to go forth and do the will of God in our lives. Let us taste and see the goodness of the Lord with the eyes of faith. Let us live in love, as St. Paul urges us to do, being imitators of God, who so loved us as to give His only Son for our salvation, and who continually gives His Son to us to be our bread of life. Let us appreciate the Eucharist more and more as the mystery of faith; not something to be solved, but some one to be discovered and loved in the embrace of faith, a some one who desires us to live with Him in the reality of eternal life.
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