. . . the word “Amen” is the most important word . . . that the people ever use and utter at Mass.
More and more depths of devotion have been absorbed into the fully devout use of “Amen” down through the centuries from ancient times, and any translation narrows its meaning very much and impoverishes it. But we have to know what we mean by it when we use it whether we can express what we mean in other words or not. God does not listen to words that we do not mean. So in instructing people we do have to try to point out some of the shades of meaning in prayer of this word. . .
One meaning of Amen is “So be it” and the French do use that translation in prayer. It also includes the affirmation, “Yes, I mean that, I agree with that, I want that.” Sometimes it means “Yes, that is so. I believe that.” We use it at the end of our own prayers not as a response as in the Liturgy, but to reaffirm or put our signature to what we have said or sung.
It is used in the Liturgy especially at Holy Mass as the people’s response to the prayers the Celebrant has made alone in their name. It is something like the response you sometimes hear during an effective speech in civil life. “Hear, hear!” people say and possibly clap. “Amen” requires emphasis and enthusiasm when we use it.
1500 years ago St. Jerome, speaking of the Rome of his day, said that the “Amen” of Christians resounded like a peal of heavenly thunder and shook the empty pagan temples. At the same time St. Augustine said to his flock, “When you say ‘Amen’ you consent to what has been said.” And St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians points out that if the people do not understand prayers that are being said (in tongues, for instance) they will be unable to say “Amen” to them. How easily we tend to say Amen to prayers we have not even listened to! You assume responsibility and merit before God if use this word well.
I suppose the most important use of the word in the Liturgy is what is called the “Great Amen” at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer and before the Our Father. This is our response and endorsement of the whole Canon of the Mass.
Let us enrich this sacred and precious word more and more as time goes on by using it really well and thoughtfully and reverently and emphatically.
At the moment when you receive Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament is held before you and the priest or minister says as you look at it, “The Body of Christ” or “The Blood of Christ”. Your “Amen” at that moment is an expression of the firmest faith that it is so, an act of faith, and it includes all your love and desire and delight as Jesus gives Himself to you. And we can all say “Amen” to that.
