The following post contains the text of an email I sent to a friend who is a retired teacher of Greek and Latin. It raises the question as to the reason for the use of the word Mass.
I made (what was for me) a startling discovery this morning in connection with the use of the word Missa / Mass. There is a tantalising reference buried deep in the Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas. In Article 4 of Question 83 (in the Third Part), he considers : Whether the words spoken in this sacrament are properly framed?
He lists nine "objections" and the last of these reads:
Objection 9. Further, just as Christ's body does not begin to be in this sacrament by change of place, as stated above (III:75:2), so likewise neither does it cease to be there. Consequently, it is improper for the priest to ask: "Bid these things[1] be borne by the hands of thy holy angel unto Thine altar on high." (English translation from Catholic Encyclopedia)
... corpus Christi, sicut non incœpit esse in hoc sacramento per loci mutationem, ut supra dictum est, ita etiam nec esse desinit. Inconvenienter ergo sacerdos petit, iube hæc[1] perferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum. (Latin text from Corpus Thomisticum)
He presents as his reply to the ninth Objection words that include the following:
And from this the Mass derives its name [Missa] because the priest sends [mittit] his prayers up to God through the angel, as the people do through the priest. Or else because Christ is the victim sent [missa] to us: accordingly the deacon on festival days "dismisses" the people at the end of the mass, by saying: "Ite, missa est," that is, the victim has been sent [missa est] to God through the angel, so that it [sic] may be accepted by God.
Et propter hoc etiam Missa nominatur. Quia per Angelum sacerdos preces ad Deum mittit, sicut populus per sacerdotem. Vel quia Christus est hostia nobis missa. Unde et in fine Missæ diaconus in festis diebus populum licentiat, dicens, ite, Missa est, scilicet hostia ad Deum per Angelum, ut scilicet sit Deo accepta.
Now, St. Thomas writes of the uniqueness of the Mass:
Since the whole mystery of our salvation is comprised in this sacrament, therefore is it performed with greater solemnity than the other sacraments.
in hoc sacramento totum mysterium nostræ salutis comprehenditur, ideo præ ceteris sacramentis cum maiori solemnitate agitur.
Granted this importance, I could never understand why the Holy and August Sacrifice would be referred to by a word said to be derived from a dismissal, the traditional reading of Ite, missa est. Here are some translations from missals I have in my possession:
Allez, la Messe est dite (Manuel du Chrétien, 1921)
Idos: la Misa se ha terminado (Misal Práctico, 1950)
Go, the Mass is ended (The Key of Heaven, 1957)
Go : you are sent forth (St. John's Sunday Missal, 1962)
Go, it is the dismissal (The St. Edmund Campion Missal, 2012)
Go, the Mass is ended (Today's Mass: Missale Romanum, 2021)
It is of interest to note that the OED includes the following paragraph in small print:
The post-classical Latin word [missa] occurs with the sense ‘dismissal’ in secular and religious contexts in the late 4th and early 5th centuries (referring e.g. to dismissal from law courts, relief of a sentry, dismissal after a liturgical office, and denoting any of various religious services). The specifically liturgical senses, which are also recorded from this period (their chronological sequence is uncertain), are of disputed origin: explanations commonly start from the basic sense ‘dismissal’, but are generally divided between two different ‘dismissals’ occurring during the mass: the ritual missa catechumenorum or dismissal of catechumens at the point in the liturgy immediately before the celebration of the Eucharist (an explanation found already a636 in Isidore Origines 6. 18. 4), and the dismissal of the congregation at the end of the mass (compare the formula Ite, missa est preserved in the Catholic liturgy, which is itself of disputed interpretation, by some being explained as showing a participle, and by others a noun).[emphasis added]
If St. Thomas is correct in deriving the word Missa / Mass from Hostia ad Deum per Angelum missa est, everything now seems to make sense. The word Mass may be read as deriving from and referring to the offering (sending) of the sacrificial Victim (Hostia), Christ our Lord and Saviour. The Baltimore Catechism puts it quite succinctly:
Q. 917. What is the Mass?
A. The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.
If Satan is, as we believe, behind the attacks on the Church, this would explain not only the attacks on the Mass itself but also the apparent hatred of the very word Mass, as it refers indirectly to the Saving Victim and His victory on the Cross.
