Church at the Wall: A Political and Liturgical Analysis of Border Masses

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of border Masses, those instances where clergy have led the faithful outside the church building and outside the regular schedule of sacraments to the United States–Mexico border to celebrate Mass as an overtly political act, describing how border Masses open up new ways of thinking about the relationship of Eucharist and politics, as well as the role that ecclesial practices should have in shaping Christian political engagement, and attempting to show how a consideration of these services might clarify the functions, possibilities, and limits of liturgy. First, I provide a description of these border Masses as they have occurred, including the context, rhetoric, participants, and shape of the liturgy. The second section describes the political and topographical space in which these services take place; the border is examined with attention to the way that such a construction shapes Christian identity and practice. Given this context, I move to address the recent debates over politics and Christian liturgy that centre on the latter’s capacity for positive transformation. I examine the Eucharistic and liturgical theology that serve as the foundation for border Masses to think about the ways that the practice itself, and the ways that God shows up in the sacrament, might push back and challenge us in unanticipated ways. Are practices of Eucharist at the border a revolutionary force that might upend the injustices that necessitate a border wall? Are they rituals that only reinforce social norms and whose impact is reduced to pragmatic appeals for modifications to existing laws? What resources might we find in these spaces to help move both the Church and the world toward justice?