I wanted to stop everything and shout, ‘‘Hey, can I explain what’s happening from Scripture? This is great!’’ Still, I maintained my observer status. It was before me-in the words of the Mass! One line was from Isaiah, another from the Psalms, another from Paul. I would stay seated, with my Bible open beside me.Īs the Mass moved on, however, something hit me. The Mass, I had been taught, was a ritual that purported to ‘‘resacrifice Jesus Christ.’’ So I would remain an observer. For years, as an evangelical Calvinist, I’d been trained to believe that the Mass was the ultimate sacrilege a human could commit. Then a bell rang, and they all stood as the priest emerged from a door beside the altar. Their genuflections impressed me, as did their apparent concentration in prayer. Before me were a goodly number of worshipers, men and women of all ages. I took my seat in the shadows, in a pew at the very back of that basement chapel. So I persuaded myself to go and see, as a sort of academic exercise, but vowing all along that I would neither kneel nor take part in idolatry. I wanted to understand the early Christians yet I’d had no experience of liturgy. Studying the writings of the earliest Christians, I’d found countless references to ‘‘the liturgy,’’ ‘‘the Eucharist,’’ ‘‘the sacrifice.’’ For those first Christians, the Bible-the book I loved above all-was incomprehensible apart from the event that today’s Catholics called ‘‘the Mass.’’ Curiosity had driven me there, and I still didn’t feel sure that it was healthy curiosity.
THERE I STOOD, a man incognito, a Protestant minister in plainclothes, slipping into the back of a Catholic chapel in Milwaukee to witness my first Mass. Publisher: Doubleday Religion First Edition edition (November 9, 1999) He lives with his wife, Kimberly, and their six children in Steubenville, Ohio. His scholarly articles have appeared in various academic journals, including the Journal of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and Currents in Biblical Research. He is the author of a dozen books, including The Lamb's Supper Hail, Holy Queen Swear to God and Understanding the Scriptures. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and editor of the Center's academic journal, Letter & Spirit. An internationally renowned lecturer, Scott is founder and president of the St. He is also professor of theology and Scripture at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
SCOTT HAHN was recently appointed as the inaugural Chair of Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation at Saint Vincent Seminary (Latrobe, Pennsylvania).
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