A bishop visits with second graders preparing for First Communion and asks: “What is the meaning of Eucharist?” A little girl catches him off guard, saying: “The meaning of the Eucharist is the exit sign.” The bishop pauses, then asks: “Why the exit sign?”
The young girl says: “We share in the Body and Blood of Christ, and we become the Body and Blood of Christ as we leave the Eucharist and go out beyond the exit sign.” The bishop then realizes she clearly understands the meaning of Eucharist.
The Eucharist is not meant as a stand-alone experience. Just as the introductory rites and Scripture prepare us for Eucharist at the altar, the final prayers, blessing, and dismissal (and even the exit sign) remind us of the Sacrament’s intention for living our faith outside the church.
Here are four keys to understanding how the Mass, especially its ending, can shape your week — and one simple practice to try with each:
Key 1The Prayer After Communion.
Because this prayer is brief and follows the high points of Eucharist and Communion, we too easily overlook its significance. The prayer follows a regular pattern of asking that the grace of our sacramental encounter at Jesus’ Death and Resurrection may transform how we live our faith. We do not gather for something that flares briefly and disappears. We gather so that the flame of faith lit at our baptisms not only stays lit but burns more intensely. The Prayer After Communion asks that the grace of standing at the Cross with Jesus might bear fruit in how we live in the New Covenant with him.
Consider how the Prayer After Communion for Pentecost Sunday expresses this plea:
“May these gifts we have consumed benefit us, O Lord, that we may always be aflame with the same Spirit, who you wondrously poured out on your Apostles.”
Or this one for the feast of St. Francis:
“Grant us, we pray, O Lord, through these holy gifts which we have received, that, imitating the charity and apostolic zeal of Saint Francis, we may experience the effects of your love and spread them everywhere for the salvation of all.”
Though addressed to God the Father, the Prayer After Communion also reminds us that our Sacramental encounter with Jesus Christ at his Cross can transform how we live when we go beyond the exit sign.
This Sunday: Listen closely to the Prayer After Communion and note what it asks of you.
Key 2Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
The dismissal is not telling us it is time to go home. Rather, it recommissions us for the God-given mission we received at Baptism. We remain connected to the power of the Cross, so let’s go forth to live lives transformed by grace.
This Sunday: When you hear the dismissal, imagine Christ sending you forth by name.
Key 3Missionary disciples.
We increasingly hear the call to be missionary disciples and not merely to believe. We are to live with the awareness that we intentionally follow Jesus by carrying out our God-given mission and purpose.
Recent popes refer to that calling as given to all. As Pope Leo XIV has said:
“No baptized person is exempt from … mission: everyone, each according to their own vocation and condition of life, participates in the great work that Christ has entrusted to his Church.”
This Sunday: At the end of Mass, choose one simple way you can live as a missionary disciple during the week.
Key 4The exit sign.
When I served at St. Joseph Apache Mission on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, we posted a sign at the parking lot exit, “Now Entering Mission Territory.” We preached to its meaning and invited parishioners to take what the Lord was doing for us on Sunday not only home, but to wherever life took them during the week. What the little girl said to the bishop can be said about that parking lot sign too: “We share in the Body and Blood of Christ, and we become the Body and Blood of Christ as we leave the Eucharist and go out beyond the exit sign.”
This Sunday: let the exit sign be your reminder that the Mass continues in your life.
The young girl was on to something insightful about Eucharist and Communion. Sometimes it’s the less obvious things that renew our understanding of what we cherish. We can easily rush through the final moments of Mass — the Prayer After Communion, blessing, dismissal, and even the closing hymn. But perhaps even a simple exit sign can slow us long enough to remember that the Eucharist and Communion are meant to shape how we live out our God-given mission.
