3.50 Why are we sent away at the end of Mass?
At the end of the Mass the priest says “Go in peace”. This concluding sentence sums up our entire lives as Christians.
The Mass is of little value if afterwards we don’t actually go out into the world in the peace of Christ, offering help to those who need it and proclaiming the Gospel to all of creation. It is the duty of every Christian to help people who are poor, sad, hungry, unhappy, lonely, vulnerable or oppressed. The #TwGOD app can help you to follow texts of the Mass in many languages.
Why do we say “Amen” to the profession of our faith?
We say Amen—“Yes”—to the profession of our faith because God appoints us witnesses to the faith. Anyone who says Amen assents freely and gladly to God’s work in creation and redemption.
The Hebrew word amen comes from a family of words that mean both “faith” and “steadfastness, reliability, fidelity”. “He who says amen writes his signature” (St. Augustine). We can pronounce this unconditional Yes only because Jesus in his death and Resurrection has proved to be faithful and trustworthy for us. He himself is the human Yes to all God’s promises, just as he is also God’s definitive Yes to us. [Youcat 165]
How is the Good News spread?
From the very beginning the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Jesus Christ in order to lead all to faith in him. Even today, from the loving knowledge of Christ there springs up in the believer the desire to evangelize and catechize, that is, to reveal in the Person of Christ the entire design of God and to put humanity in communion with him. [CCCC 80]
"Ite Missa est" [Mass is ended, go in peace]... is full of meaning, for it refers to mission. Mass has not ended. Mass always continues, it continues in each of us, in our faith and in our life. This faith and this life themselves must become mission. Together we form the Church here on earth, and we are all in a state of mission. This is the vision that is conveyed by the brief words of the liturgical conclusion of Mass in Latin: "Ite, Missa est". [Pope John Paul II, Address to the workers at Castel Gandolfo, 25 Sept. 1990]
