AMDG
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"THIS IS MY BODY WHICH IS BEING GIVEN UP FOR YOU; DO
THIS IN MEMORY OF ME" (LUKE 22:19). He loves us so much that He gave us Himself in the
Eucharist. Let us take advantage of this
great gift in Holy Communion every Sunday and at daily Mass when we can.
Today is
Trinity Sunday and traditionally on the following Thursday we celebrate the
Feast of Corpus Christi or Body of Christ, i.e., the Eucharist. In countries such as the United States where
it is not observed as a holy day of obligation, most dioceses celebrate Corpus
Christi on the following Sunday.
In Poland it is a paid national holy day and the Eucharist is adored in a procession throughout the city as streets on the route are blocked off. Many people kneel even on cobble stoned streets when the Eucharist passes. Every few blocks the procession stops for prayer. Many if not most city administrations would cooperate if a parish would try something similar over several blocks. It would be a marvelous profession of faith and a means of evangelization especially when people ask questions. In the public procession below, are the sun rays captured by the camera a chance occurrence or providential?  We have journeyed with Christ through Advent (preparing and waiting for the promised Messiah), Christmas (the promise fulfilled), Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday (He gave us Himself in the Eucharist), Good Friday (He opened the gates of Heaven for us), Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, Pentecost (He gave us His Holy Spirit), and Trinity Sunday. Elements of all of them are present in the Mass which God uses to miraculously give us the Eucharist, the Body of Christ. Let us examine the Mass and meditate on how awesome it is! Then perhaps we won’t simply go through the motions and take the Mass for granted.
Some people are lax about attending Sunday Mass because they
think "it’s boring"; because "I don't get anything out of
it"; and "I’m too busy". What we gain from the Mass depends
upon how much we put into it and how actively we participate. If we would
really understand the Mass in depth, really appreciate it, and recognize its
awesomeness, we would be fascinated and never bored. Then we would try to
assist at daily Mass as well. We would somehow make time for Mass (Liturgy)
every Sunday as the busiest of people can do. After all, according to the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Sunday Mass attendance is a grave obligation.
So much so that if a person misses Mass for no good reason that makes it
practically impossible to attend (illness, physical impossibility, etc.), it is
a mortal sin that puts one's salvation in jeopardy........a clear violation of
the 3rd Commandment: “Keep holy the Sabbath Day”. Continuing to receive Holy Communion without
going to confession is a sacrilege that puts the soul in even greater
peril.
Why is Holy Mother the Church so strict? It's an act of love. Attendance on Sunday is
minimal contact in community with Christ who is physically present in a real
way. Being lax about Sunday Mass attendance will cause us to drift and
eventually lose the faith entirely. We need the nourishment, the graces,
and the strength that the Eucharist gives, not to mention the intimate union
with Christ Himself. In the parish community we love and support each
other on our journey to eternity.
Worship and prayer are more powerful in community. The illustration below sums up the purpose of
the Mass.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass or Liturgy is first and foremost, a
sacrifice, where the Last Supper and Calvary are brought to us in an unbloody
and mysterious way that transcends time (see also “The Lamb's Supper” by
Dr. Scott Hahn, once a strongly anti-Catholic Presbyterian Minister). God is
not subject to time. At Calvary Christ offered Himself to the Father in
reparation for all the sins of the world, past, present, and future. In every
Mass somewhere in the world around the clock 24/7 our time, a great miracle
occurs. During the Consecration Christ in the person of the priest
(persona Christi) invokes God (the Trinity) to send His Holy Spirit to sanctify
the bread and the wine so that they may become His body and blood, soul and
divinity while the physical appearances remain the same. Hard to believe? For God all things are possible!
Shortly after, with the participation of the faithful Jesus
Christ in the person of the priest offers to the Father the consecrated
Eucharist, i.e., His own body and blood, soul and divinity. Thus the entire Holy Trinity (Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit) are very much involved in the Liturgy. Each person of the Trinity acts in His own
way, but in perfect unison. They consecrate the bread and the wine as one
God. We associate different attributes,
functions, and events with each Person of the Holy Trinity even though they
have the same divine qualities or attributes and characteristics.
The Paschal Lamb. The Jews in the Old Testament would sacrifice an
unblemished lamb. At Calvary Christ, the High Priest sacrificed Himself, the
Lamb of God, to the Father. At every Mass Christ in the person of the priest with
our participation sacrifices Himself, the Eucharist to the Father.
Then the Jews would consume the lamb. Today we consume the
flesh of Christ, the Lamb of God --as elaborated in John 6 and in the Gospel
accounts of the Last Supper-- in a real and close Communion with Christ
Himself. We have several intimate moments with the infinite God. At the same
time all of those who partake in this Eucharistic banquet are in communion or
fellowship with each other. This differentiates Catholics from other
faiths. Only the Catholic Church and the Orthodox profess that the
Eucharist is the true substantial presence, not a simple representation or
portrayal. Anyone who does not believe in the Eucharist as Christ Himself
(the divine presence), cannot consider himself a Catholic because the Eucharist
is the source, the center, and the summit of Catholic life........the focus of
the liturgy.
“THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL
COVENANT, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH
WHICH SHALL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU SO THAT SINS MAY BE FORGIVEN. DO THIS IN
MEMORY OF ME.”
The Old and the New Covenants. By consuming the paschal meal commemorating the
Passover and flight from Egypt (Exodus), the Jews in fellowship would renew
their covenant with God.......”I am your God and you are my people”.
This was a profession of faith in the one true God only and a pledge of
faithfulness to Him and His laws. The Last Supper, where Christ gave us Himself
in the Eucharist, a paschal meal. We renew the new covenant of belief and
faithfulness to God when we receive Holy Communion, also a paschal meal. When
the priest says to the communicant, “the Body of Christ” we answer “Amen” in
affirmation, a profession of faith. That is: "Yes, I believe".
For that reason non-Catholics are asked to refrain from receiving Holy
Communion as at weddings, funerals, etc. Thus we are seeing just how
biblical the Mass is.
The Mass is divided into two parts: (1) the Liturgy of the
Word and (2) the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Liturgy of the Word consists of an admission of our
sinfulness, supplications for mercy, praise, and four readings from the
Bible. We begin with confession and contrition for our sins. That
is followed by praise and scripture. On Sunday the First Reading and the Psalm
(praise) are usually taken from the Old Testament. The Second
Reading is generally one of the Epistles and occasionally Revelation,
which are teachings by St. Paul, St. John, and other apostles. These
readings often point to the Gospel, which narrates the life and teachings of
Christ. Either a priest or a deacon reads the Gospel and does the homily,
which teaches or explains the readings. These readings show that the New
Testament is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament. To
understand the New Testament, we must understand the Old Testament. If one faithfully attends Mass every Sunday,
he or she will have gone through the highlights of the entire Bible over three
years.
Heaven and Earth
come together during the Mass (called Liturgy in the Eastern Church).
In the Liturgy of the Eucharist the priest first offers the bread and wine to God as did
the high priest Melchisedech in the presence of Abraham. God gives us
"fruit of the earth" specifically wheat and the grapes which man (and
woman) transforms by work into bread and wine. During the Offertory
we offer these products of our work to God. In the Consecration we have the
transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood, soul and
divinity of Christ Himself. Subsequently, Christ in the person of the
priest offers together with the faithful in attendance the Eucharist as the
sacrifice of atonement to the Father.......thus the name, "Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass". Then we consume the sacrificed Body
of Christ in Holy Communion. This brings to mind the prayer at the
beginning of each decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet: "Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins
and those of the whole world" as revealed by Christ Himself to St.
Faustina, a great mystic of the 1930s..
The Consecration and the Communion bring the Last Supper
and Calvary to us in a mysterious way that transcends time. At the same time the Eucharist is the
resurrected body of Christ. Since we
receive Christ in both His human and divine nature and because the Holy Trinity
is really inseparable, we not only receive Christ in Holy Communion but in a
sense also the Father and the Holy Spirit.
We receive into our hearts, the Almighty God, the creator of the
Universe, Christ the King of the Universe.
Finally, the priest dismisses us and sends us out to be witnesses for
the faith……..don’t just keep the faith; spread it. This mission comes from the Latin, “Ite,
missa est” (Go, you are sent) and thus comes the word “Mass”. Now you know the rest of the story.
Clearly, the Mass is indeed Biblical and so is the Eucharist which Christ was very explicit about in the Gospel of John Chapter 6: "Unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, there is no life in you". That differentiates the Catholic Church from every other faith......the Eucharist as Christ Himself, body and blood, soul and divinity. Is that miracle beyond the power of God? The Mass is about the
Eucharist........the source, the center, and the summit of the Catholic Faith. The Eucharist is the nutrient for the soul
and a source of strength and grace. Because
of its great importance, every Catholic is expected to attend Mass every Sunday as a
very serious obligation. Exceptions only entail significant sickness
or circumstance that makes Mass attendance impossible. The Sunday
obligation is so essential because of the transcendence of the Mass as the
unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary and the intimate union with Christ Himself in the
Eucharist, the food of life. What an opportunity to become close to
God! Prayer as community throughout the Mass is powerful. In the
parish community we love and support each other through good and bad
times. Furthermore, we learn more about
God in the Liturgy of the Word; through prayer and the Eucharist we know Him
better.
The Eucharist nurtures our relationship with God, without
which our "good works" become sterile. Such weekly contact with God
in a deep way is minimal for spiritual growth, so important for salvation,
which is the ultimate goal each one of us is striving for. That's why we are here on our pilgrimage to
eternity, our final destiny........to grow through the earthly trials and
prepare ourselves for Heaven. That's
what life is all about.
APPENDIX
Bishop Robert Barron has much to say about the mystery of the Mass. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPR2u6NkZeU.
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