Today's first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, contains a portion of the first part of the Sanctus or the “Holy Holy” that is sung at every Mass. Every person who comes to pray with us should be actively involved, and these responses are the people’s responses to what God is doing. God deserves your response as does our community.
This response is revealed to us as a hymn from heaven – like the Gloria that we sing is the song of the angels after the birth of Jesus, this song of the angels is a proclamation of both the angels and our participation in the invisible reality of what we are caught up in at that point of the Mass.
The prophet Isaiah was caught up in a vision of God, and at that point he says, “I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of His garment filling the temple.” And it is at that moment that the prophet sees the seraphim stationed above, each of them having 6 wings: two of them veiled their faces, two of them veiled their feet, and two of them hovered above. Then Isaiah hears the seraphim crying out loud to one another: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” Their song was so noisy and powerful that Isaiah says that the frame of the door shook, and the house was filled with smoke. Ezekiel describes a similar scene in Ezekiel 3:12-13. John writes about a similar experience of ecstasy in the heavenly liturgy in Revelation 1:10-11 and 4:8. In short, we could say that their hearts were on high, where God lives, and they experienced God’s presence!
These visions of the holy prophets and the apostle John help us to take the measure of all that is happening at Mass when we sing the same words of the angelic song. The singing itself teaches us that we are standing before the very throne of God in heaven. In his visions of the throne of God in heaven, the apostle John always refers to God as “the Lamb.” This, of course, as we know, is the liturgical name for the crucified Christ who was the sacrificial lamb. This should be astounding to us! This means nothing less than the earthly event of the cross is a vision on earth of the throne of God in heaven. The rest of the words of the hymn we sing plunges our memories immediately into the events of the cross of Christ.
And what do we do after we sing the Sanctus? All people kneel, as the priest alone remains standing and, with arms outstretched, again takes up the prayer directly addressed to God the Father. The people kneeling and the priest alone standing and saying the prayer is meant to indicate even more clearly that the whole body directs its prayer to the Father only through the head of the body who is Christ. Kneeling here is meant also as a gesture of adoration. We should know at that moment that we are mysteriously taken up into heaven itself and that into our very midst there is one “coming in the name of the Lord.” Christ is coming; the bread and wine will be changed into his body and blood.
So hopefully you and everyone will sing this Angels song loud and proud, knowing that we are with God at His banquet.
God Bless,
