By MARIA SERMERSHEIM
MEDITATIONE IGNIS
I always appreciate the differences in the prayers of the Mass as liturgical seasons change; but recently, I was struck by a more fundamental element of the concluding rites – the final blessing. I attended the Jan. 6 Memorial Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and Bishop Siegel used the episcopal final blessing, a form which increased my anticipation for the final blessing and heightened my understanding of its significance. I began to consider more deeply the power of prayer in light of the power of a “simple” blessing; and as we enter into Ordinary Time again (quite possibly my favorite liturgical season), I invite you to do the same.
The blessing began as usual: “The Lord be with you – And with your spirit.” This merits much reflection on its own. We often pray it as a statement, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” Here, I think, we pray the words as more of a request that the Lord might accompany each person at the Mass and throughout their lives. And what does it mean to ask the Lord to be with us when we know that he always is?
Our very existence is sustained at each moment by his loving intention, so what different aspect of his presence does this prayer address? I could wonder about those first lines for hours, but the blessing quickly continues with the following sequence: “Blessed be the name of the Lord – Now and for eve;. Our help is in the name of the Lord – Who made heaven and earth.” We pray that the Lord’s name is recognized as great, that he is praised and blessed now and forever, just as we do in the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed be thy name.” We acknowledge our dependence on God, stating the fact that the Lord who created heaven and earth is the very same one who condescends to care for us, he is the same one upon whom we rely in every instance, for every assistance, great or small.
Then, taking the pastoral staff, the bishop makes the sign of the cross three times as he prays, “May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” As much as it is the “episcopal blessing” and the bishop is the one praying for the blessing, it is the almighty Lord who blesses us: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Creator who is always with us, who sustains us, who intervenes for us beyond merely providing for our existence.
It is staggering—but true—to think that the God who created the universe and knows all of the past, the present and the future looks lovingly on me at that moment, especially, and blesses me.
The final blessing is adapted in many ways for many occasions, but it always concludes Mass; and it always invokes the one almighty God who made heaven and earth, regardless of whether the celebrant says it in so many words. Though it is called the “final blessing,” it is only the final blessing of each Mass; it is not (generally) the final blessing of our lives. How astonishing, that we can be—and are!—repeatedly, explicitly blessed by the almighty God. Yes, God bless you, in your sneezes and your snores, in your living and in your dying.