When Peace Rolls Right Over the Agnus Dei

The priest intones, “Peace be with you.”

The congregation responds, “And with your spirit.”

And then, sometimes it doesn’t come. The priest doesn’t say, “Let us offer each other the sign of peace.” Sometimes—often, around my town—he moves on with the Mass.

And yet, even when the priest does not invite us, the church is aflutter with handshaking, waving, nodding, spouse-kissing, child-hugging.

Is this just a warm and fuzzy break from the solemn Mass, or are we stepping on one of the most important prayers of the Mass? “Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.”

When the unbidden Sign of Peace breaks out, we miss most of this prayer. The sign of peace has rolled right over the Agnus Dei.

What is the Agnus Dei?

It comes at the summit of the Mass, which itself is the source and summit of our faith. It comes right after the prayer Jesus taught us, the Our Father, and right before the prayer of the Centurion—“Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”—and the reception of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Agnus Dei connects Him to the sacrificial lambs of the Old Testament, especially the Passover lamb. It is our chance to affirm this most core teaching of Holy Mother Church: that Christ, the sacrificial lamb, removes our sin and brings us salvation. It is our moment for preparing to receive Holy Communion.

And yes, I’ve seen people do the unbidden sign of peace and miss the Agnus Dei completely, such as at my daughter’s school where the unbidden sign of peace turns into a kind of minor chaos.

What are the rubrics? The sign of peace is entirely optional, and the priest either offers it or does not. It is not really our option to exercise if the priest does not offer it. Does it go too far to suggest this is an act of disobedience? Probably. But certainly, one can say that these folks are missing one of the most beautiful and important prayers of our Holy Liturgy.

And then there is the moment the priest does offer the sign of peace and hardly anyone is there, and so the sign of peace is really about trying to catch someone’s eye so you can give them that meaningful nod, or the grimace of peace. The priest ought to be able to look up and see that no one is standing near each other, and therefore, the sign of peace will be a literal stretch. Of course, this does not stop certain folks from turning and waving or exercising that last vestige in the world of the hippie peace sign. A friend of mine expressed the issue of her being single and having to “stand there and watch the families play huggy face for several minutes before somebody finally acknowledges you.”

Now, I am not an abolitionist, though if it were to go away forever, I would not mourn. When it is offered by the priest, I will kiss my wife, hug my daughters, maybe nod to my neighbor, mouth “peace be with you”; but I don’t really like it. In my trad days, during a Novus Ordo, I would kneel down and put my face in my hands. I recall at the heterodox Paulist Church near Columbus Circle in New York City—local trads call it “St. Paul the Apostate”—the priest left the altar and worked the crowd. I felt a heavy, hairy hand of peace on my shoulder.

The traditional sign of peace on the altar is really quite beautiful. The priest kisses the altar, embraces the deacon, and the deacon passes this along to the subdeacon in hierarchical order. And there is no Rotary Club bonhomie rolling around the congregation and right over the Agnus Dei.

Now that we have settled that, let’s discuss all that profound bowing to the priest when he processes and recesses. Where did that come from?