What is the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? A Primer for Clueless Catholics

A PRIMER for CLUELESS CATHOLICS

Part I

We are Clueless

IMPORTANT FOREWORD:

If you can find a Traditional Latin Mass in your diocese (the Tridentine Mass of 1962, prior to the many unfortunate changes and liturgical abuses common to nearly every Mass celebrated in the vernacular subsequent to Vatican II) ... we have one suggestion: GO! Find one. If you have experienced little of sanctity ... and much in the way of silliness ... if you have encountered (wo)man more than you have encountered God ... if you have left as empty as you had arrived ... go to a Tridentine Latin Mass (yes, it is both approved and encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI). If you were born after 1960 you will experience something you have never before encountered; something of unutterable beauty, sanctity, solemnity, and ceremony that your forbears knelt before for over 1000 years.

You will find God.

Absolutely everything, every gesture, every act, is directed to God Who is the sole focus of the Most Holy Sacrifice that we call the Mass — and not to a music "Ministry" or a priest as an entertainer — most often a comedian — who demand your applause ... at the foot of the crucified Christ. If you have never really and truly experienced "the utterly sacred" and have no idea what it means, what that experience is ... the experience of proximity to God Himself ... go to a Tridentine Latin Mass! Your life in, with, and through Christ will never be the same again. You will know what "worship" really is ... and how very different it is from the many forms of self-adulation you have encountered in every vernacular Mass (no two are exactly alike). Instead of the exaltation of man, you will find the exaltation of God — and come to realize the vast gulf between the two and the paltry exchange that has been traded off when man chose to worship God on his own terms and sought to share the very Throne with Him.

For those who cannot find a Latin Tridentine Mass, or whose bishop, in defiance of Rome, deliberately suppresses it — we offer the following as a way of attending the vernacular Mass without losing your faith as a consequence of it:

Admit it.

You haven't the foggiest idea what is going on during Mass.

You may not even know why you're there.

The reasons are many:

It's what Catholics do and I am Catholic.
I want my kids to grow up in this tradition that comes from my parents, grandparents, and forebears throughout the 2000 years preceding my coming into this world through them.
It is something good to do and it is holy ... although why it is good and why it is holy remains a mystery to me.
My friends go ... although they do not know why either.
I need God's help, and if I go to Mass He will look favorably on me.
God is there ... although just how He is there, I do not understand – after all, God is everywhere, right? – so why is this place so special?

Do not be ashamed. It is not your fault. There are answers – good answers – for all the questions this short list brings up.

You were never taught.

It is really that simple. No one took the time to sit down and talk with you about what is the most important event in your life – and it occurs every 7 days. In fact, whatever else you do during the other 167 hours of the week (job, school, charity – in fact, every other responsibility, necessity, or good work) however good, kind, lofty, noble, pales in significance to the Mass.

The Basics:

Before you go further in this brief study – and it is a study that we invite you to – of the single most important thing in your life, we must make a promise to you first: it will not be dry or boring, nor will it be fraught with meaningless pieties. You will understand what the Mass is, why it is holy, and why you must be there. This is our promise to you.

It will not be "socially correct", sanitized to sensitivities, or keeping in step with the passing fads that blow through the pews and across the Altars as so many shifting winds following that elusive mantra of "what is in vogue". There is perpetuity in the Church, and unchangeable elements of the Mass. Hopefully, we will enable you to see beyond the Mass so often presented as entertainment, hosted by an entertainer, to the deep and very sacred reality within it.

"The Mass", as we most often call it, is really short for, "The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass".

Linger a moment on those 7 words, for they contain quite nearly everything that you will need to know in order to understand why you go to Church, or why you ought to.

The Mass, first and foremost, is a Sacrifice. Not a figurative sacrifice, not a mere remembrance of something done long ago, and not a metaphor. It is a real sacrifice. At Mass you are witnessing – even participating in – a sacrifice, very real and very present.

Does that surprise you?

We do not hear very much about this – but unless we understand this most fundamental, this absolutely central aspect of the Mass, nothing else makes sense. Our lack of understanding the Mass as a Sacrifice contributes to most of the confusion that surrounds our going there and being there.

But what is the nature of this Sacrifice, and how is it enacted? Who does the sacrificing and who or what is sacrificed? How do we ourselves participate in it?

Tomorrow we will begin to understand.