August 5, 2018

18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) 

Looking at the Mass with the Eyes of the Saints

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

During this month, the Gospel readings will unfold for us Our Lord’s teaching on the Eucharist found in the 6^th Chapter of St. John—the Bread of Life discourse. Let’s consider how this gift comes to us—Holy Mass. I tapped two great saints to help us. The first is St. Jean Vianney, patron saint of priests. He said, “If we really understood the Mass, we would die of joy.” The second is Padre Pio who made this bold statement: “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass.” Have you ever thought of Mass that way?
 
Recently I read a few accounts of the English martyrs who were tortured, shed their blood and died for the Mass. They risked so much to be present at Mass. I felt just a little ashamed as I thought of their devotion.
 
What did the saints see that we don’t see? It’s so easy to put off the Mass. It’s a struggle to keep it a priority. It’s easy to gravitate to other attractions. I have mentioned more than once the increasing number of families who forego a funeral Mass for their loved ones even if the Mass was precious to the deceased. In the course of their marriage preparation, couples will tell the priest, “We just want a quick wedding service, Father.” Not a few couples prefer Jersey’s beaches over the Lord’s sanctuary. We know too how Mass can become so routine, even mundane, lacking the joy and reverence they warrant. What is missing? Cardinal Basil Hume wrote: “We somehow have to make the celebration of the Eucharist attractive, central to our lives, a priority. We will not do it by making it consciously cheerful. We will not do it by eccentric celebrations. The secret is to go deeper into its meaning.” The saints went deeper and so should we.
 
A key to that secret is to grasp that the Mass is much more than a prayer service. It is a transcendent, supernatural, mystical celebration that has two inseparable aspects. One we can easily understand—the Mass is a Sacred Banquet at which we are nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ. But the piece of furniture in the center of the sanctuary is not only a table from which we are fed, but an altar at which a sacrifice is offered. This is the second aspect of the Mass, which is so often lost to us.

The notion of sacrifice is rather strange to us but it was of paramount importance to the ancients and to Israel. People related to God through sacrifice. This is a deeply rooted instinct in the human heart. Isn’t there a need in us to offer God some sign of obedience and love, and beg his pardon and mercy?
 
In the Old Testament people did this by offering first fruits and slaughtering animals. The animal’s blood was poured out in place of a sinner’s blood. These sacrifices were continually offered in the temple. In fact, the blood of the sacrificed animals was sprinkled on the people to seal God’s covenant with them. Yet we know that that seal or bond was often broken through sin. So the people continued their sacrifices in the hope that someday God’s covenant would be sealed for all time!
 
This could only be done by a perfect sacrifice, a perfect victim whose blood was precious! It was finally accomplished on Good Friday. In Jesus Crucified divinity and humanity meet. He is the perfect Lamb of sacrifice whose precious blood would be poured out on the altar of the cross.
 
At the Last Supper Our Lord united the Eucharist with the Cross. He said that the bread and wine were not only to be consumed but that the bread was his body that would be given up for us and that the wine was his blood of the new and eternal covenant to be shed for the remission of sins.
 
So we can never separate the Mass from Calvary. Every Mass makes present in a mystical way, the Lord’s death. In the words of Bishop Sheen, “the Mass is the application and projection through space and time of the redemptive love of Christ on the Cross.” The Mass makes the power of the Cross present in the here and now. The Mass brings the mystery and power of the cross to the here and now. Why?—So that we might join all our prayers of thanksgiving, sorrow, and petition with those of Jesus Himself.
 
At that Sacrifice we are never alone. The saints and the souls in purgatory are with us. St. John Chrysostom said, “When the Eucharist is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the divine victim immolated on the altar.” Saint Augustine said, “The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.”
 
You see, the Mass is heaven come to earth. Through it we have the fullest and most perfect way to offer the Lord our adoration, thanksgiving, petition and reparation for our sins. My friends, let us look upon the Mass with the eyes of the saints to see what they saw, to know the joy they knew and to experience that which is more powerful than the sun.