The entire celebration of the Mass has the function of praise, blessing, glorification. But the Eucharistic prayer is the heart of this liturgy. The prayer begins with the preface, lifting hearts to the Father. It continues with the Sanctus, proclaiming God’s holiness and his glory that fills the universe. At the end of the Eucharistic prayer, the priest recites this concluding doxology, praise of the Trinity. In it, the priest lifts up the sacred Victim and, holding it aloft, above all temporal realities, says:
“Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, forever and ever.”. (GIRM 151)
The Church confesses the unique mediation of Christ and his supreme priesthood. Only “through Christ, with Him and in Him” can we reach the Father, “no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We know that our works are pleasing to God through the mediation of Christ. Our lives, united to his life, death and resurrection, are the honor and glory of the Trinity.
The Church exists for the glorification of God, and this is precisely why the Christian priestly people have been gathered: to raise to God in the Eucharist the highest possible praise and to draw innumerable material and spiritual goods for the benefit of all humanity. For this reason, it is in the Eucharist that the Church expresses and manifests herself totally.
The Christian people make the Eucharistic prayer their own, and respond to the great Trinitarian doxology by saying: “Amen”. This is the most solemn Amen of the Mass.
The word Amen is possibly the chief liturgical acclamation of the Christian liturgy. The term Amen comes from the Old Covenant: “The Levites shall lift up their voices, and in a loud voice shall say to all the men of Israel… And all the people shall answer, saying, Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:15-26; 1 Chronicles 16:36; Nehemiah 8:6). According to different contexts, Amen means: “This is it, this is the truth, so be it”
Like the whole liturgy, saying Amen has a vital meaning. It is not a mere answer given with the lips, but has a value of adherence to the mystery being celebrated. To say Amen means to unite with Christ, to desire to make our whole life a doxology, that is, a glorification of the Trinity united to the Paschal Mystery of the Redeemer.
To be “to the praise of his glory” is an essential part of the Christian vocation. In the doxology there is a recapitulation of the glory of all creation in Christ. Through His obedience and love unto the cross, Christ has accomplished the perfect glorification of the Father: “Father, glorify your name” (John 12:28) and has attained the perfect glorification of his humanity united to the Word: “Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). We must unite ourselves, with our lives, to this glorification of the Trinity. Uniting ourselves to Christ, offering our whole life with Him, joys and pains, success and failure, work and everything that we do, we will become praise of the glory of the Trinity “through Him, with Him and in Him.”
López, Félix “Explanation of the Mass – The Concluding Doxology”, Home of the Mother, Accessed 13 May 2024, https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/eucharist/ 549-explanation-of-the-mass/2440-concluding-doxology