Vol. II, April 1999

Meditating on the Mass

What happens at Mass?

Time and time again we have heard it: "The Mass is b_r_ng". You can fill in the gaps for yourself. We choose to leave the spaces, as, on principle, these two words should not be found in the same sentence. In fact the combination of these two words is not only an offense to God, but also clear evidence of religious ignorance. Without any doubt in "adult religious ignorance" we have identified one of the most basic problems of our day: People do not understand Catholicism, and because of this criticize it; they do not understand the Mass, and because of this they find fault.

So what really happens at Mass? A book could be written to respond to this question. In fact, to fully explain the Holy Mass, one book would not suffice. Further, we ought to add that hundreds of books have been written on the subject, but ignorance still prevails. We will now limit ourselves to explaining the most important part of the Mass, and we will do so very briefly. The most important, or central, aspect of the celebration of the Eucharist is the consecration. At the moment of the consecration something mind boggling happens. Something occurs which should really cause us to shudder. The priest takes bread into his hands, and, as the special representative of Christ, he says: "Take this, all of you, and eat it: THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU". At this moment the bread ceases to be bread. It is changed into the Body of Jesus Christ. Please think about this fact: A piece of bread has been changed into the True Body of Jesus Christ. Yes, the Risen Lord is present in the consecrated host. In fact it would be more accurate to say: The consecrated host is the Risen Lord.

Immediately after this the priest takes the chalice into his hands. The chalice contains wine. Again he begins to speak in the name of Jesus. He speaks in the Person of Christ. He repeats the words that Christ Himself spoke at the Last Supper. The priest says: "THIS IS THE CUP OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT". With these words the wine is changed, it is changed into the Blood of Jesus. Please stop and think! What is in the chalice is no longer wine, but truly the Blood of Christ. The Risen Lord is present in the chalice. The chalice contains the life giving Blood of Our Savior.

Let us try to consider this Mystery a little more profoundly. Let us start by considering the consecrated host. The host is not simply the Body of Jesus, it is Jesus Himself. The Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ are present in the Host. So when you receive Holy Communion, you receive Jesus Himself. You receive the very Person of Our Lord. You do not receive bread, rather you receive the Bread of Life, Our Lord enters into your heart. At the moment of the consecration the bread became Christ.

The same should be said about the wine. The wine did not just become the Blood of Christ (as if the Blood of the Risen Lord could be separated from His Body), it became Christ Himself. Yes, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus are truly present in the chalice. In other words: Christ in fully present under the appearances of both bread and wine. He is fully present as God, He is fully present as Man. What appears to be bread is Our Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. What appears to be wine is not wine, it is Jesus Christ, who is both God and Man. In the Eucharist Jesus is our Food and our Drink, our Nourishment and our Delight.

At the Mass Jesus is present! How can we say that it is boring? How can we even dare to associate the Mass and boredom? We can do so only if we do not understand the Mass, or if, having understood it, we fail to concentrate on what is happening. Let that be our resolution to pay attention at Mass. Let us listen with great care to all the words that the priest pronounces. Let us redouble our attention during the Eucharistic Prayer. Slowly but surely the greatness of the Mass will dawn on us. It will become the most important event of our lives. We will never again be heard saying that the Mass in b_r_ng. It will be the center of our lives, a source of strength, and the gateway to eternal happiness.

On Trial at Mass

Here it seems very important to note that there are some people who find the Mass _o_i_g, but never say so. They understand the profundity of the Mass, they participate with great sincerity, but remain unmoved by what happens on the Altar. Not only during prayer, but also while at Mass, they seem to be in a spiritual desert. How can we understand this? God, in His Love, allows a certain dryness. But why? Such a person is being called to love God and the Mass at a more profound level. The time has come to love God for His own sake, and not for the sake of the sensible consolations that He transmits. It is more important to adhere to the Lord of consolations than to the consolations of the Lord.

(Recently a young man in Brazil lost his leg in a terrible farm accident. His wife Sharon, who was not yet seventeen years of age, was shattered. On hearing the news she cried uncontrollably. After the surgery was complete she had to face her husband, who could only repeat, "my life is destroyed, my life is destroyed". The priest who accompanied her encouraged her to be brave. During this first encounter she knew she had to be courageous in order to transmit courage to her husband. Without her support his life would become unbearable. Dry eyed she walked into the ward, looked her husband is the eyes, and said: "Michael, I didn't marry your leg, I married you". On leaving the ward she broke down uncontrollably. She had had one message to transmit to her husband and she transmitted it heroically: I love you, not because of what you have, but because who you are, my husband.¹)

Do we love Christ in the Eucharist for His own sake or do we expect to receive constant consolations from Him? If we truly love Christ and the Mass we will remain patient during spiritual dryness. Even though we do not feel joy in the Lord's presence we will remain faithful to Him. We will make a gentle but constant effort to pray our way through the Mass. We will try to keep our minds fixed on God, we will love Him. Without becoming irritated with ourselves or our plight we will unite ourselves to Christ on the Cross, and with Him offer ourselves to God the Father.

A Moment of Friendship

We have already spoken about the most central moments of the Mass. In fact we identified the consecration as being the climax of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. There is however another moment, let us call it the Moment of Friendship, which deserves our attention.

As we all know, friendship is two-way love. In other words, for true friendship to exist love must be mutual. John must sincerely love Mary, and Mary sincerely love John.

Now, Jesus loves you. In fact, He loves you more than any other person does. He died on the cross for you, and would have done so if you were the only person in need of salvation. Now, if Christ's love for you is so great, ought you not to love Him above all others? Indeed, you should love Him with all your heart, all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind (cf. Lk 10,27). Now, remembering that He loves you more than any one else does, you can say that He is your Best Friend, if you love Him above all others.

In order to maintain and develop friendship conversation is absolutely necessary. Therefore we must speak to Christ. Personal contact with Him is required. But where are we going to meet Him? Where can we encounter Jesus? He is present in our brothers and sisters, He is present when we pray in any form of group, He is present in our priests, but above all He is present in Holy Communion. When we receive the Eucharist we come into contact with the Body of Christ. At the moment of Holy Communion we receive Jesus, he enters into our body, into our heart, into our soul. Now we have the chance of a "private audience" with Christ. We should speak to Him in our own words. We can spill out our hearts to Him, talk to Him of our difficulties, our hopes, our dreams, or just thank Him for having come in fact this we should never fail to do.

At this stage you might like to know how long your "private audience" with Christ lasts. We cannot say for definite, but we can give an approximation. It is safe to say that Jesus stays with us for about fifteen minutes after Holy Communion. For this reason it would be of great advantage to spend this time in prayer. This, however, is not always possible. Many of you might attend Mass on your way to work or during lunch break. Time is often scarce. Nevertheless you ought to spend, at the very least, a couple of minutes in private prayer after Holy Communion. It would be good to make a little rule for yourself; to spend maybe five minutes in prayer after you have received your Risen Lord. Your Best Friend thinks of you throughout the day. The least you and I can do is to "abide in Him" for some short minutes after having received Him in the Holy Eucharist.

¹The names of this young married couple have been altered in this publication, but do keep them in your prayers.