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Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Like the introductory rites of the Mass (see last week’s bulletin), The “offertory” or Presentation and Preparation of the Gifts is much more than a “halftime” in the Mass where people can zone out. This is one of your most active times of participation. Excerpts from the text follow:

The offering of bread and wine in the Mass has deep roots in Scripture. In addition to being used in the Passover of Jesus’ day and in the Last Supper, bread and wine were offered up regularly in Israel’s sacrificial rites. Consider the symbolism of bread and wine and what it would have meant to offer these gifts to God. In the Bible, bread was not merely a side dish to a meal as it is in most Western societies today. For the ancient Israelites, bread was the most basic type of food, seen as necessary to sustain life. In fact, the expression “to eat bread” describes simply eating in general.

The Israelites were called to give up some of their bread in the regular offerings and sacrifices and in the annual Feast of Weeks ceremony. To part with one’s bread would have been a personal sacrifice, expressing the individual’s giving of himself to God.

Similarly, wine was not just a side beverage but a common part of ancient Israelite meals. It was often consumed with bread and was served at feasts and for guests. Yet like bread, wine was also offered up in Israel’s sacrifices. It was one of the first fruits presented to the Temple as a tithe, and it was poured out as a drink offering (a libation) in Israel’s thanksgiving and atonement sacrifices. Since there was a close connection between the sacrificial gifts and the individual giver, offering bread and wine symbolized the offering of one’s self.

The same is true with the presentation of our gifts in the Mass today. In the bread and wine, we offer back to God the gifts of creation and the result of our labors—or, as the prayer in the Mass calls them, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands.” Ultimately, the rite symbolizes our giving of our entire lives to God in the offering of bread and wine. As one commentator noted, “There is no scrap of bread which does not call to mind the hard work of plowing and sowing, the moist brow of the reaper, the weariness of the arms which have threshed and milled the wheat, and the labor of the baker who kneaded the dough close to the scorching oven.” The same could be said of the wine, which comes from the grapes harvested from vines that had been carefully tended throughout the year.

More Than Money

The practice of giving money (which eventually overshadowed the offering of oil, fruit, and other sundry gifts) can be seen in the same light. Putting money in the basket is not simply a contribution to some good cause. It, too, expresses the giving of our lives to God. Our money embodies hours of our lives and hard work, which we now offer to God during Mass in the presentation of the gifts.

Yet some Christians might wonder, “Why does God need our gifts? He sent his Son to die for our sins. Why does he need our meager sacrifices of bread, wine, and money?” Ultimately, God does not need these things. Lacking nothing, God is God with or without our gifts. But we need to offer these gifts. We need to grow in self-giving love, and this is one reason why he invites us to unite our lives to him in this way. These small offerings help us expand our hearts and grow in sacrificial love. Moreover, though they do not count for much on their own, what gives them immense value is the love we put into them and the fact that we unite our meager gifts with Christ’s perfect sacrifice. In the presentation of the gifts, it is as if we bring our entire lives and all our little sacrifices (which are symbolized by the gifts) to the hands of Jesus himself (who is represented by the priest). The priest then brings our gifts to the altar, which is the place where Christ’s sacrifice is made present, in order to express our union with Christ’s offering to the Father.

From the perspective of Jesus’ Beatitudes, he receives our poverty, our sorrow and grief, our powerlessness, our thirst for justice and righteousness, as well as our purity of heart, our desire to make peace -- even our persecution for his Name’s sake -- and transforms all of it, along with the bread and wine, into the Body of Christ and beatitude (blessing). We sing a song at the offertory procession to unite us in this most important and most basic moment of our human work, liturgia, turning our very selves over to God to consecrate us, and transform us in the sharing of Holy Communion.

The Lord be with you,