Preface of Praise

Sadly, it's all too easy to be at Mass and have the attention span of a 5 year old.  I miss out on various prayers, readings, etc. if I'm not careful--despite my best efforts. One of those areas is the Preface.  I think the best explanation of the function of the Preface came from one of my teachers, Fr. Paschal: it's a hymn of what we have to be thankful for.  After listing those things, how can we do anything but join in the song of the angels?

The theology in the feast-specific texts is wonderful.  The new translation has restored the poetic, prosaic feel of these beautiful prayers.  They're packed with meaning!  For example, here is the rest of the Preface for the feast of the Epiphany:

For today you have revealed the mystery
of our salvation in Christ
as a light for the nations,
and, when He appeared in our mortal nature,
you made us new by the glory of his immortal nature. 

Once we bring God into any equation, mystery necessarily follows.  God revealed Himself to us, and also His plan of salvation.  How else would we have known of God had He not revealed Himself?  And, of course, when we talk about revelation, we have the wonderful gift of the Scriptures and of Tradition.

We're reminded that Christ came to offer salvation to us--something mysterious in itself, since it's rooted in God's unbounded love for mankind.  Why did God create us, why did He go to such lengths to point us toward salvation, when mankind did nothing on its own to deserve it?  Love, love, love!

The use of the phrase "light to the nations" is rooted in the Scriptures (cf. John 8:12) but also in Vatican II.  The primary document of the council, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, begins with the words "Christ is the light of the world."  Later in that first paragraph:

"Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission." (LG #1... read the whole document here)

In a sense, that sentence takes John 8:12, Jesus saying "I am the light of the world," and transforms it into a mission statement.  The Church aims to be a bright, shining star to the world, drawing the nations to the love of God.  And on the feast of the Epiphany, this idea of the Church being a light to the nations has a much more proximate image: that of the star that led the magi to Bethlehem.

Back to the preface.  The two closing lines recall the mystery of the incarnation ("when He appeared in our mortal nature"), as this feast directly references Christmas.  The final line points us toward baptism ("made us new"), which is the portal by which we would come to be a part of the Church, the light to the nations.  Talk of Jesus' mortal and immortal nature also brings up the hypostatic union--that Jesus is fully God and fully human.  Nice heavy dose of Christology to top it off.

A recap of the major themes covered in this preface:

1. Revelation
2. Salvation
3. Ecclesiology (the Church as a light to the world)
4. the Incarnation
5. Baptism
6. Christology

Take in a nice deep breath of that... good stuff.  It's all there to those that have eyes to see and ears to hear.  And let's join the angels in praising God!