Today’s question is another liturgical one. My question is this: what is the “Sign of Peace?” What do we mean when we exchange a “Sign of Peace” at mass?
Yes, almost anyone who attends mass regularly knows that right after we pray the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, and just before we receive Communion, we turn to those around us and with a handshake or a hug say to one another: “Peace be with you.”
However, some of us remember the days when this was not the case. Back before Vatican II and the changes in the Liturgy, it was at this point in the mass the priest said to the entire congregation: “Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.” “May the peace of the Lord be always with you.” And the entire congregation responded: “Et cum spiritu tuo.” “And with your spirit.” There were no accompanying handshakes nor hugs back then. No touching in church! It wasn’t seemly!
In fact, when the custom of exchanging a “Sign of Peace” among the members of the congregation first occurred in the late sixties, many parishes did a very strange thing. Some of you may recall it. Back then, all churches had a central aisle dividing the building. And so the people on the left side turned towards the ones on the right side of the church and each side bowed towards the other! It wasn’t until the liberal seventies that Catholics thought it was OK to shake hands during the Mass. And a few really courageous ones even exchanged hugs as a sign of the Peace of Christ among us.
A Sign of the Peace of Christ – a sign that Jesus the Christ brought us a peace beyond merely a lack of conflict – a sign that through praying Our Father and through receiving his Body and Blood – we all enter into a peace and fellowship beyond all understanding. This sign could now be shown by our action, our interaction with one another and not merely by words spoken in a forgotten language.
And what about the “Sign of the Cross?” What do we really mean by this sign? When we trace the image of a cross on our own body – or over the body of someone we love – and say the words, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” – are we merely making some magical waving of our hand in hopes of good luck – like a basketball player before a free throw – or do we acknowledge our thanksgiving for the suffering of our Lord on the cross and for our blessings given to us by our Trinitarian God?
Do we recognize that our outward expression, our visible action, relates to an inner reality, a reality beyond our human understanding? The “Sign of the Peace of Christ” and the ‘Sign of the Cross” are true signs of the presence of God and of our own acknowledgment of God’s presence.
Do you recall the usual definition of a sacrament? As children we learned that a sacrament is an outward sign of an inner reality. A sacrament is the grace God bestows on us to strengthen us on our journey with Him.
And this is what is meant by the “Sign of the Peace of Christ” and the “Sign of the Cross.” External actions signifying an inner, eternal reality, one that cannot be seen by our human eyes nor heard by our human ears but is recognized only by the interior sight and listening of our human hearts. These particular signs can be called “sacramentals,” little sacraments.
In today’s gospel we heard about another sign. We heard how Jesus, at a wedding feast in Cana, turned water into wine. It is one of the stories from the Gospel of John. A gospel which is divided into two parts, two “books” if you will: the “Book of Signs” and the “Book of Glory.” However, these two “books” have the same purpose. It’s a purpose stated in the last line of today’s gospel: “Jesus did this, [changing the water into wine] as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and his disciples began to believe in him.”
“To believe in him.” To believe that he is, indeed, the Word of God made flesh. The Word of God, the power of God, who came into the world in which we see and hear. A world where he came to dwell among us. It was in the action of his changing water into wine that his followers began to believe in him. But his action did not stop there. At the conclusion of his ministry on earth, he changed wine into his own blood – and commanded that we consume his body and blood to become one with him and his Father. He did this so that we could enter into an everlasting covenant with him.
We are reminded of this at each and every Eucharist, when the celebrant raises the chalice and says words to the effect: “this is the cup of my blood, the cup of the new and everlasting covenant, shed for all of us … and for the forgiveness of our sins.”
And what is this covenant? This “new and everlasting covenant.” Do we not recall that the “old” covenant was an unconditional agreement between Yahweh and his Chosen People. An agreement that He would be their God and they would, indeed, be his People. A covenant renewed through His promises to Noah, to Abraham and to Moses, that their people would be His people.
And now we have a “new and everlasting covenant,” made through the Pascal Mystery of Christ, that all humanity has become God’s Chosen ones; that everyone has been granted salvation through the suffering, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son. That this salvation is merited by Christ’s actions and not by our own. That this covenant exists for everyone, even if there are those who have not personally accepted this covenant. It is a covenant of unity among us. A covenant of unity.
Which brings me back to our gospel reading for today. It is a reading which is often proclaimed at wedding celebrations. I think it’s usually chosen for the obvious reason it mentions a wedding celebration. A really good celebration. A three-day party where the wine is running out and Jesus makes about 600 more bottles of the best vintage wine out of six large jars filled with water. So yes, it makes a good story about wedding receptions.
But this story is about more than catering a wedding reception. It is really about a covenant. A covenant we call matrimony. It is not about an extended wedding party. It is about an extended, life-long, unconditional agreement between husband and wife. Between wife and husband and the God who created them and blesses their unity with Him.
After all, a covenant is a never-ending agreement between God and God’s people. And this is what the Catholic Church teaches us about the sacrament of matrimony. The sacrament of marriage is a life-long covenant, a life-long agreement of the spouses with one another and their God.
Marriage is a covenant which, when truly entered into with their free-will commitments by husband and wife, is a marriage blessed by the superabundant grace offered by God as his contribution to their agreement.
Just as Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana blessed the bride and groom with a superabundance of wine, he also blesses each couple with a superabundance of his love. It is a love they can call upon as they live out their covenant relationship through times of mutual difficulty. For, as we all know, even when we pledge our commitment of undying love to one another with the vows we exchange, there are times when this love needs rekindling. The original flame of our love can be renewed to an even greater light and warmth, when we draw upon the superabundant love and grace provided by God in this union with him.
In times of difficulty as well as in times of immense joy, we must remember that the sacrament of matrimony is a sign of God’s covenant with us, with us as husband and wife – and as members of the larger community, the larger covenant. Married couples have the sign of their covenant in the sacrament of Matrimony. The larger community has a sign of its own new and eternal covenant with others and with God in the sacrament of Eucharist.
Each sacrament has its own signs. Its own actions. Its own divine encounters. Its own changes. For this, too, is what a sign contains: an action for change, for re-formation. At the celebration in Cana, water is changed into wine. At each celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ.
At Cana, only the servants of the groom knew the source of the wine. Only his followers knew and believed in his glory. At Eucharist, only those who serve the Lord, only those disciples who follow his teachings, know and believe in the source of his consecrated body and precious blood. But these changes do not end here.
It is through the action of our consuming his body and blood that we, too, are called to change. We are to change from ordinary people to become his Chosen ones, the ones who proclaim his Pascal Mystery – through our actions, through our love, through our lives. Each one of us is to become a living sign of Christ, a Sign of the Peace of Christ, a Sign of the Cross for everyone. † “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time; January 14, 2007
Is 62:1-5; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Jn 2;1-11