Hymns work best when nothing else is going on, as we experience with the two great hymns of every Sunday Mass—the Gloria and the Sanctus. While we usually sing other hymns at Mass, we do so at times when we are busy doing something else: watching and joining ourselves spiritually with the entrance procession, getting our monetary offering out of our wallet or purse, watching the preparation of the altar and the gifts and joining ourselves spiritually with bread and wine to be offered, walking in the communion procession and receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood, and leaving the assembled Church to “glorify the Lord by [our] life.”
In a sense, those of us who walk out of church during the final hymn really understand what is going on the liturgy after the Dismissal: we are to leave! Those of us who stay and sing might feel that those processing out during the hymn must not understand to whom the hymn is addressed (or they certainly wouldn’t have the audacity to leave!). Most of us like a rousing conclusion to the end of Mass—but maybe this desire is a little misplaced. Perhaps we are like Peter at the Transfiguration who wants to prolong the glory of the mountaintop, when the liturgy really calls us to descend to the plain. While many like to sing a hymn at the end of Mass, the shape of the liturgy has much to teach us about coming down from mountaintop experiences and getting on with the mission of the Church in ordinary life. But when we do sing a concluding hymn, let’s try to finish together!