I am learning to serve the Tridentine mass. So far, I have served three masses at the altar of Saint Philip at the London Oratory.
The actions during vesting and the procedure remind me of scrubbing and gowning for surgery with the assistant helping the surgeon.
And the non-touch sterile actions each surgeon follows until arrival at the table and the protocol of passing instruments all akin to the events at Mass. There is a sense of drama and theatre in both. That’s probably why the place of surgery is called an operating theatre.
Both events are exhilarating in themselves, they involve suffering to bring about healing. Both, when successfully concluded, are fabulous achievements.
In mass, however, the body is Christ Himself.