Liturgy News

Where in the Mass should the Sign of Peace occur? Proposition 23 from the 2005 Synod of Bishops on Eucharist raised the question of its relocation in the Mass because problems arise when it is protracted and it may give rise to some disorder just before communion. In his synodal exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (49), Benedict XVI asked the Curia to study the possibility of moving it to another place. Now the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has written to bishops conferences asking their opinion. The letter is strongly weighted against keeping the sign of peace at communion time, saying that it not rarely takes on excessive forms of expression, causes disorder and confusion, and distracts attention from the moment of sacramental Communion.

The alternative position for the Sign of Peace would be at the end of the Liturgy of the Word after the intercessions and before the gifts of bread and wine are carried to the altar. This placement is based upon Matthew 5:23f: .. ..leave your gift there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first... This position for the sign of peace can claim a venerable tradition from antiquity and is generally used outside the Roman tradition. I would argue however for preserving the uniqueness of the Roman Rite.

First of all, we do not need to take Mt 5:23 literally. It refers to an offering being made in the Temple of Jerusalem and is not in any sense a rubric for Christian liturgy.

The placement of the sign of peace in the communion rite has a long history in the Roman liturgy. In 416, Pope Innocent I wrote to Bishop Decentius of Gubbio rejecting the suggestion that the sign of peace occur before the eucharistic mystery and arguing that it serves as the seal, the congregational assent, to what has occurred in the Eucharistic Prayer. In 598, the Lord's Prayer, at first used at the reception of communion, was moved by Pope Gregory the Great to its position immediately following the Eucharistic Prayer. In this position, it is still a communion prayer but the link is strengthened between the Lord's Prayer and Christ's own words at the last Supper. Ordo Romanus I, one of our earliest Mass outlines dating from about 700, thus places the sign of peace after the embolism of the Lord's Prayer and before the breaking of the bread.

As the Middle Ages progressed, there were amplifications of these rites - genuflections, elevations, kisses and so forth. The sign of peace was restricted to communicants (who became fewer) and so was moved closer to the communion itself. Soon the peace was further restricted to the clergy and, to make it clear that Christ was its origin, the rite began with kissing the altar, paten or host and was then passed along from one to another. The English custom spread of kissing and passing along the pax-board (a small plaque carved with a crucifix or other image), turning a fraternal sign into an act of reverence. Finally, in the Tridentine Mass, the breaking of the (priest's) host occurred during the embolism of the Lord's Prayer which was followed by the commingling and the Lamb of God. Then the priest said three private prayers to prepare himself for communion. The first of these was the eleventh-century text, Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles... At a solemn Mass the sign of peace would be exchanged by the clergy after this prayer.

The 1969 Missal of Paul VI made good sense of the communion rite in the Roman tradition, restoring the sign of peace to all the people and locating it again between the Lord's Prayer and the breaking of the bread. The peace prayer, once the private prayer of the priest, has been put into the plural and is now said aloud for all. The new edition of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal further suggests that, as people exchange the peace, they say to one another, The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Persuasive though the history of the Roman rite may be, the reasons for retaining the sign of peace in the communion rite are not just historical. Theologically and sacramentally, it makes eminent sense.

1. It is a gesture which opens up the Lord's Prayer. It amplifies the petition for divine forgiveness and our resolve to forgive one another. Thus it is a sign of conversion and peace-making - it leads us to the holy communion of the Body of Christ, the Church.
2. The peace prayer helps us focus on Christ by taking up the words of his farewell discourse to his disciples, / I leave you peace, my peace I give you (Jn 14:27). We hear an echo of the greeting of the risen Christ, Peace be with you (Jn 20:19-26), spoken in our midst. The new greeting that people are invited to use also focuses on the peace of Christ.
3. The exchange of peace readies the Church for the breaking of the bread, preparing us to discover there the rich significance highlighted by Paul: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Cor 10:17). By the sign of peace, the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament (GIRM 82).
4. Finally, it amplifies the petition of the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The sign of peace foreshadows the reign of the Prince of Peace (Catechism 2305). It is an eschatological sign which prepares us for the communion references to the banquet of heaven: Happy are those who are called to his supper (the supper of the Lamb of God in heaven).

It is very clear that this is not just any miscellaneous acknowledgement of the people around us. Hail fellow; well met is quite out of place. This is serious, it is a sacred moment in the liturgy, and the sign needs to be made soberly. My experience in Australia suggests that the intemperate language of the Congregation's letter does not apply here. The sign of peace is generally exchanged in a dignified manner as befits Australian reserve. If the gesture is misunderstood or exaggerated sometimes in some places, then efforts to educate that community are redoubled, but our liturgical tradition is not denied nor our rite restructured on the basis of an aberration.

Above all it does no respect to the sacredness of the liturgical moment to advocate that robust reverence for the Body of Christ yield to devout adoration before the real presence. The sign of peace in the communion rite helps us avoid a divorce between the ecclesial and sacramental Body. As one of our Eucharistic Prayers puts it, may we be counted among the members of your Son whose body and blood we share. Or, to quote the new rubric in the Order of Mass, the exchange of peace is a sign that expresses peace, communion and charity. Our communion in the blessed Sacrament is a communion with the whole Church, the Church of e\Tery time and place. The sign of peace at communion time reinforces the understanding that, as the Church makes Eucharist, the Eucharist makes Church. This dimension is too important to lose.