Our Contribution: The Meaning of the Offertory

Is the offertory just an interlude? A time to use the restroom? In actuality, it has profound meaning, but one easily overlooked. We have an itinerary of sorts for the Mass from the words of the Gospel: he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. The offertory entails bringing the bread and wine to be taken up so that it can be blessed in the consecration, broken in the fraction rite to be made into food for us, and given in communion.

Throughout all of history, humans have offered precious things in sacrifice, pointing to God as the source and goal of all good things. Making a sacrifice (“making something holy” by setting it apart for God) has as its goal not simply making a gift, but, through this gift, to direct life itself to God. The most common sacrifices have been things we eat and drink, because we depend on these things for our continued life. By giving them God, we say, we depend upon him even more as the giver of the gift of life itself.

In the Old Testament, animals were offered either as a holocaust, completely consumed by fire, or offered and then consumed by the priests or the people. In addition, there were cereal offerings of grains (made into cakes) or libations of wine, shekar (a beer-like substance), and water (at least during the Feast of Booths). We often say that the sacrifices of the Old Testament have been superseded by Christ, but there is an element of them that we continue. As part of Christ’s transformation of the Passover into his own Pasch at the Last Supper, we continue the offering of bread and wine at the Mass. This draws on not only the blessing of bread and wine by Christ, but the sacrifice of Melchizedek, the hospitality offered to the three angels by Abraham, the bread of the presence within the Tabernacle, and the daily cereal offerings and libations.

The Mass requires a sacrifice from us. It was more apparent in the early Church when Christians directly donated the matter of bread and wine for the Eucharistic sacrifice, but, even today, the offering constitutes what we bring before God to be made holy. It could hypothetically even stand alone as its own sacrifice, but that would be nonsensical compared to the divine gift that Jesus offers us in the Eucharist. A gift of bread and wine pales before the offering of the Son to the Father which becomes present to us at the Mass.

The Eucharist is the sacrifice of Christ, the most perfect sacrifice that could ever be offered. Just as grace builds upon nature, so does the Eucharistic sacrifice build upon and perfect our own offering of bread and wine. We must produce the matter. Unlike water, bread and wine are not found in God’s work of creation. They flow from our work to perfect wheat and grapes. Jesus did not need to become man to save us. He did not need to use the context of the Passover meal to institute the Eucharist. And he does not need our offering of bread and wine. He desires to do so, however, because he wants us to cooperate in the work of salvation. He does not save us without us. St. Thomas makes this connection by quoting Pope St. Gregory VII: “Gregory says [Concil. Roman. v, can. xii]: ‘Let every Christian take care that he offer something to God at the celebration of Mass'” (ST II-II, q. 86, a. 1, sed contra).

The offertory is a sacrifice or an oblation, through which we should bring ourselves to enter into the sacrifice of Christ. In the traditional Roman Rite, the priest prays at the end of the offertory: “Receive, O holy Trinity, this oblation which we offer to Thee in remembrance of the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” He then invites the people to join in the offering: “Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable.” The sacrifice of Christ is acceptable, but we must join ourselves to it. If we do, our sacrifice will become acceptable to God.

The offertory is the sacrifice of the gifts of human work and culture. For each of us, it is also an invitation that we will make our own contribution to the sacrifice of Christ. His sacrifice is infinite and perfect, but we make up what is lacking in it in terms of the Body of Christ on earth. God wants our contribution so that we can also participate the perfect sacrifice, which perfects our own offering.

So remember, the offertory is not a time to go to the bathroom, a sort of interlude in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is your invitation to enter into the work of Christ by bringing your own work and gifts to him so that they can become an acceptable sacrifice, ordering your entire life to God.