The acclamation by the congregation at the end of the Consecration, although taken from the New Testament, is at that moment completely inappropriate and misleading.
In fact, it introduces yet another element of ambiguity by showing a people who is waiting “until you [Christ] come again” just while He, instead, is truly present on the altar as the Victim of the expiatory sacrifice which has just been renewed.
Priest’s answer
Dear Son,
1. It is not inappropriate because we live “as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
2. It is true that at that moment Jesus Christ has already manifested his presence “in body, blood, soul, and divinity.”
But it is still a presence in faith.
In that faith by which St. Thomas in Adoro te devote says: “On the cross your godhead made no sign to men,
Here your very manhood steals from human ken:
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.
I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call you Lord and God as he;
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.”
3. When instead we say: “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again,” we await his coming in glory.
It is that coming in glory that Saint Thomas invokes, also in Adoro te devote, even in the presence of Jesus in the Sacrament: “Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what your bosom ran
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.
Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech you send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on you face to face in light
And be blest for ever with your glory’s sight.”
4. Thank you for your question.
The matter is that there are so few who explain the meaning of that acclamation to the faithful.
I bless you and remember you in prayer,
Father Angelo
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