Emmaus and the Mass

Many of us with non-Catholic friends or family have probably heard the accusation that the Mass is nowhere to be found in the Bible. I am sure many of us know that is not true, but what are some examples of the Mass in the Bible? Some of us may go to the Last Supper scenes, but are there others besides that? Arguably the best example after the Last Supper would be the scene of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, which we hear about in today’s Gospel reading. What happens here? Look closely: the two are on the road to Emmaus and encounter Jesus but do not recognize Him. He recounts the Scriptures to them (readings), He interprets them for the two (homily), and then sits down at table with them and offers the bread and wine and “breaks the bread” with them (Eucharist). This scene is an exact reflection of the Mass. In fact, any time we see the words “breaking of bread” in the Bible, it is referring to the Mass. The books of the New Testament were written before we actually had names and terms for things, including the Mass and the Eucharist. The term “breaking the bread” is what the early Church called the Mass while they still worked to figure out what to call these things.

The Book of Revelation uses a lot of liturgical (Mass-like) imagery as well. Throughout the book, we see a number of scenes of heavenly worship: from the saints and angels singing hymns of praise (Rev 7:10; Rev 10:10-12) to clouds of incense being offered up as the prayers of God’s people (Rev 8:3-4; Rev 5:8) to the river of life giving water flowing out from the throne of God (Rev 22:1). The Book of Revelation draws these parallels because the Mass is a sharing in the heavenly worship. When we come to Mass, when are actually taken up into heaven itself. If you want to know what heaven will be like, come to Mass. As we can see, all of this comes directly from the Bible; none of it contradicts the Bible in any way. If we are truly open to it, then we can see that the Mass is actually the Bible in action.