Sunday 29 (A-2005): The Holy Mass

Neither by his death alone nor by his resurrection alone did Jesus save us.  As birth comes only after agony, so the rebirth of the human soul is achieved in the one, two-step process of Christ’s death and resurrection.

And as a birthday is commemorated by the ritual of celebration, so the death and resurrection of Jesus, that is, the source of our rebirth to eternal life, is commemorated by the ritual celebration we call the Mass or the Eucharist.

The difference is that birthday parties only remember a past event, while the Mass actually makes that event present in the here and now of our celebration.

The Mass is not just a mechanical repetition of the last supper. The last supper itself was more akin to a celebration in anticipation of the death and resurrection of Jesus, in the way one might celebrate someone’s birthday before the day itself because they will not be there.

So, both the last supper and the Mass derive their meaning and power from the sacrificial death and the glorious resurrection of Jesus.

The Mass is therefore a perpetual commemoration (“perpetual” meaning until the end of time and also meaning every here and now of every Mass) established by Jesus which makes those mighty deeds of his death and resurrection really and truly present.

The Mass, then, (and this must be underscored a thousand times) is not something we do for Jesus or each other. It is not an invention of the Church. It is not a “nice idea” men have dreamed up “to feel good” about Jesus or about “being together” as a psychological or social “experience”.

It is Jesus himself who joins us to himself through the rites of the Mass in his perpetual self-offering to the Father. Through the Mass Jesus creates and gives new life to the Church. It is not the Church which creates the Mass, but the Mass which creates the Church. 

What is the Church anyway if not the Mystical Body of the Lord? Jesus in his Risen Body gives life to this Mystical Body of his through his Sacramental Body. In the end, it is all, and we are all united in, the one body of Jesus: the Risen, the Mystical, the Sacramental.

I repeat: Mass is not about feeling good as individuals or as a human community; it is not entertainment, a show or a sacred concert; it is not an opportunity vainly to show off to one another “how holy we are”; it does not fit in to our schedule of social engagements; it is not a “live museum piece”; it is not about how meaningful we make it by our art, music, drama, hand-clapping or hand-holding; even less is it about rules and regulations.

The Mass is totally other, more unique than uniqueness itself. The Mass is the life-giving and love-giving sacrifice of Jesus to the Father by which he gathers unto himself those who believe in him.

That is the God-given meaning of the Mass, and because of that meaning we can certainly feel good as individuals and community. Indeed, to guarantee we do not lose sight of that meaning, we must have rules and regulations which ensure we do not fail to partake of the Mass and do so worthily.

As a sacrament, the Eucharist is not merely a symbol. That is why I emphasized the “is” above (“The Mass is the life-giving and love-giving, etc.”). We are not in the realm of metaphor or stage plays or mimes or make-believe.

Sacrament is of the order of hard and fast reality, reality of earth and reality of heaven. It makes what it signifies really and truly present: the bread and wine really and truly become the Body and Blood of Christ by virtue of the words of the priest and the power of the Holy Spirit.

When you see the priest put his hands together, palm-downwards over the bread and wine and invoke the power of the Holy Spirit, saying, “And so Father we bring you these gifts. Sanctify them by the power of your Spirit that they may become the body and blood of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ”: this gesture, these words and the words of institution said by Jesus and repeated by the priest (“This is my body ... This is the cup of my blood”), really and truly change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord.

This change is the will and work of Christ and we call it transubstantiation. Christ is therefore substantially present under these forms. The bread is no longer bread, but only looks like bread: in its substance (not physical or chemical, but ontological) it is the Body of the Lord. Likewise with the wine.

We also call this the real presence. That is why, on entering and leaving the Church, we should fully genuflect with love and devotion; it also explains the presence of the sanctuary lamp, burning day and night at the side of the tabernacle.

Why does the priest and not the community perform this action? Remember that the Mass is the work of Christ, not the community except insofar as it is united with Christ.

Who is the priest, if not someone whom Christ has taken and changed his inner soul to share in the priestly identity of Jesus himself? The priest’s whole existence is for no other purpose than to be Christ himself, to perpetuate the priestly act of Jesus himself throughout history.

The priest exists, then, for the Mass, or “to confect” the Eucharist as it has been said of him. Christ instituted the priesthood in the very moment he instituted the Mass, when he said to his apostles, “do this in memory of me.”

The priest, then, is the “alter Christus”, the other Christ, meaning that his deepest and realest identity is to do as Jesus, for Jesus and in Jesus what Jesus has done for the human race.

The priest receives the sacrament of Holy Orders primarily for the purpose: to perpetuate the sacrifice of Calvary in the sacrifice of the Mass. When you see him stand at the altar, mind not his looks, his age, his humanity, his sins, his virtues. While these can help or hinder us in focusing, let our faith focus itself beyond appearances and see in him the person of Jesus Christ the Priest.

To participate in the Mass, then, is actually to die with Jesus on Calvary and to rise with him from the tomb. That means that the death and resurrection of Jesus are not simply past events of history.

No, somehow, by the power of God, they are ongoing throughout history by means of the Mass so that every human soul can unite itself really and truly with the Redeemer, live their sufferings as part of his, die their death to sin in his death and live already on this earth with the eternal life of his resurrection, a life shown forth in true charity.

Indeed, there is more: through the sacrament of the Mass we actually ascend sacramentally with Jesus and live at the right hand of the Father, worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth, with and in Jesus, and with and in all those who have already gone before us to the Kingdom of Heaven.

That is why we can say that, when Jesus returns at the end of time, when the veil of the sacrament is drawn back, he will be revealed not in solitary majesty, but with all his saints who lived and died hoping in him. By the grace of the Mass, we hope to stand with them.

The highpoint of the Mass, then, its very purpose and the purpose of our lives is to enter into a communion of divine love with Jesus which is holy as to our souls and holy as to our bodies.

It is because of that communion that we can dare to hope to rise again on the last day! And since we all enter into that communion with him, then we enter into communion with one another through the divine-human reality of Jesus.

If Christ is in each then all are in Christ and all are in each other. The Eucharist, then, is the sign and the agent of the ultimate unity of the human race.

Not the UN, not treaties, not political alliances, not science or technology, but the Eucharistic Lord is the propellant driving force of the unity of the human family.

To receive the Eucharist is to say “amen” or “yes” to this hope, this destiny of all humanity. That is why Vatican II can say that the Church is the “sign and instrument of the unity of the human family.”

To receive the Eucharist is also to say yes to the extreme love of God for yourself and for every other “yourself”. The full plenitude of the love of God is encapsulated in the Eucharist.

Receiving the Eucharist is like having a heart transplant whereby the infinitely loving heart of Christ becomes your own. And if it becomes yours, then it becomes the heart of all who receive him.

In this sense, the Eucharist is the source of true brotherly love among men; it is the source of true justice and everlasting peace.

For this reason, there is nothing more sublime in human history than the Mass; there is no work or activity, project, plan or achievement which can surpass the Mass.

For by it, Jesus achieves the purpose of creation and of history: he draws all to himself, making them share in his death and resurrection and introducing them to a definitive fulfillment beyond all their hopes and dreams.

Mass, then, should be the center of our lives. Communion should be prepared for with burning love and not sinful mediocrity. To desecrate the Eucharist is to desecrate the deepest truth of our very selves and the destiny of humanity.

The Eucharist is not a right or a free for all, but a sacred pledge to conform one’s own life to that of Jesus and of his Gospel; the Eucharist is a divine commission to give one’s life in loving service to God and one’s neighbor.

Each of us must examine him or herself and ask if we actually believe the Catholic faith on the Mass and behave in a way that proves we do.

Why indeed do we come to Mass? Superstition, guilt or faith?

Those who do not treasure Mass and communion are the ones who lose out. Any form of genuine love in your life will find the source of its strength and beauty in the love of the Eucharistic Lord. Whatever your trouble of soul its ultimate solution is in the Mass.

As the year of the Eucharist draws to a close, let us all renew our commitment to the Day of the Lord, Sunday, and his real presence in the Mass. Holy Communion is, in this life, a sacrament, but in the life to come it will be the bond of love which unites all of redeemed humanity with God and with one another.

Let not mundane fascinations rob your heart of this appointment with eternity.

Believe in the Mass!

Live for the Mass!

Die for the Mass!

Msgr. Peter Magee

Sunday, October 16^th, 2005

Annunciation Parish, DCL 10.00 and 11.30 am