The Mass: The Great Poem DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ON THIS?

The Mass: The Great Poem
by Joe Conti

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According to Aristotle’s work, “Poetics,” the supreme poetic skill is "to be a master of metaphor.  It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others..."  Let me suggest that uniquely in the Mass, mastery of the metaphor attains its superlative degree: a symbol finally and completely attains the real.  

Think of a painting of a rose-- which suddenly startles you by gushing the lush fragrance of a real rose.  Think of holding the photo of a lion-- who over-leaps his two-dimensional captivity and begins to roar.  Think of a map in your hands-- that unexpectedly gleams with rivers, frosts with snow caps, burns with deserts.    

All of this happens at every Mass, as symbols --bread and wine-- of a sudden cease to obey the laws of matter, in order to obey Holy Spirit, at the words, “This is my body, This is my blood”-- and thus become really and substantially become the Christ of Heaven under the appearance of bread and wine.   The appearance of bread and wine continues for our senses, but the original substance of each, their ordinary created ground, is now gone-- replaced by the very Christ of Heaven.  

In the early 20th century, the French poet Paul Claudel suggested that just as an ancient star continues to show its light to us though it is long gone, so bread and wine continue to appear to our senses after consecration, even after they are long gone-- having really become the Eternal Christ.  
         
It is not by accident that poets, such as Claudel, are drawn to the Divine Liturgy.  For it is the Great Poem, where “the metaphorical becomes the metaphysical” (Dr. Scott Hahn)--  and ritual becomes Actual.

http://www.christologyforum.com/

Think of a painting of a rose-- which suddenly startles you by gushing the lush fragrance of a real rose.  Think of holding the photo of a lion-- who over-leaps his two-dimensional captivity and begins to roar.  Think of a map in your hands-- that unexpectedly gleams with rivers, frosts with snow caps, burns with deserts.    

All of this happens at every Mass, as symbols --bread and wine-- of a sudden cease to obey the laws of matter, in order to obey Holy Spirit, at the words, “This is my body, This is my blood”-- and thus become really and substantially become the Christ of Heaven under the appearance of bread and wine.   The appearance of bread and wine continues for our senses, but the original substance of each, their ordinary created ground, is now gone-- replaced by the very Christ of Heaven.  

In the early 20th century, the French poet Paul Claudel suggested that just as an ancient star continues to show its light to us though it is long gone, so bread and wine continue to appear to our senses after consecration, even after they are long gone-- having really become the Eternal Christ.  
         
It is not by accident that poets, such as Claudel, are drawn to the Divine Liturgy.  For it is the Great Poem, where “the metaphorical becomes the metaphysical” (Dr. Scott Hahn)--  and ritual becomes Actual.