The Most Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass
A
Primer
for
Clueless Catholics

Part 2
A Sacred Darkness
So
far,
we have learned this: that
the
Mass
is Primarily a Sacrifice
Unless
we begin to grasp this, we can go no
further. We are, as it were, standing at the
door looking in, aware that we are in the
vestibule of something deeply sacred. Beyond
the doors we will encounter something that
we have never experienced in our lives: the
Sacrifice not of bread and wine; not even
a merely
commemorative,
still less a symbolic,
Sacrifice. No. We will witness the Sacrifice
of a Human Being.
We will not witness
this with our eyes, but Christ will, once
again, be crucified and die before
us. On the Altar He will offer Himself to
the Father in His Sacred Body and His
Precious Blood as very really as He did on
Calvary!
... for us.
As in most things
of great importance, our eyes will betray
us. You know well of what I speak. The world
of appearances
that surrounds us so often as a lie. It is
among the greatest of paradoxes that we are
blinded by our sight, and given sight by our
blindness. Things are so seldom what they
appear to be: the fluted columns of marble
within most Churches are really plaster, and
the voice that greets you in kindness in the
vestibule will calumniate you as soon as you
leave. Our eyes tell us that this man is
sinful and that woman pious, seeing nothing
of the humility in the one and the pride in
the other. How much love, and how much
malice, is concealed from our eyes! Why, the
very sky itself is not blue, but only
appears so.
At the door of the
Church, you enter, or ought to enter, a
sacred darkness. The world lies without.
God is within. Appearances must fall
away the moment you anoint yourself with the
Holy Water and sign yourself with the Cross.
The world has passed. You have entered
another dimension in which time itself is
anointed with eternity. Your eyes will avail
you nothing here. Here they will distract
you, vex you, call you to your neighbor and
away from God. Your ears will not be
deafened by a sacred silence, but will
contend with a thousand words that have no
place in Church and in the presence of the
Living God.
The only one who
will not compete for your attention is God.
The humility of God is stunning.
To Whom have you come this day? To God.
Where is He?
No, He is not upon
the Altar. Not yet. Nor is He in the
statues, if any remain. He is not even on
the Crucifix ... at least not yet.
But He is here. No, no ... not in the
mindless aphorism that God
is everywhere.
He is truly here. He has deigned to
come to a place, a specific place, and to
dwell there in utter humility; a place
before which you can actually kneel, lift up
your face, close your eyes, and look upon
Him. ... as He looks upon you. He confines
Himself for you, because He knows your
littleness.
But
where?,
you ask with incredulity. Where
is the Living God, that I may be before Him?
How this can be you will soon understand,
but right now it is only important that you
realize that He is there right before you.
Not symbolically, not metaphorically but
Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, He is
there! As really and truly as I would be,
could I stand before you. You could ... in
fact,
you will
... even touch Him!
The difference
between His being there before you,
Body, Blood,
Soul, and Divinity and His
being absent from you is the blink of an
eye an eye that sees not upon opening
but closing. It is the difference that Mary,
the Mother of God, experienced as she stood
at the foot of the Cross and closed her eyes
in her unfathomable grief ...
Was Jesus still on
the Cross before her as she
closed
her eyes?
He is no less
present to you when you kneel before Him ...
and close
your
eyes ...
Where? |
 |
In the
Tabernacle
... in that little gold House of the Living
God within which He dwells really and truly
... in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the
Altar ... under what only
appears
to be a humble Host; what, to the eyes, is
only bread. Bread? Yes, Bread!
The
Bread of Angels that has come down from
Heaven
and which to eat is life everlasting (St.
John 6:48-59).
He is there!
You will find the
Tabernacle behind the Altar or, sadly,
often shunted off to the side, but if you
look carefully, you will find it, and when
you find it you will find Him! Most often it
has a little door (for Him Who is
the
Gate)
upon which two engraved angels face each
other in adoration of Him within. But they
are made merely of gold. You are made in the
very image of God!
Do no less than the
angels ... and adore Him Who awaits you
there.
____________________________________________
What we
have learned today:
-
Jesus Christ
is really and
truly present, His
Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity
in
the Tabernacle
... under the
appearance
of bread ...
He is really there!
Go to Part:
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4
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7
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Totally
Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to
the Holy See in Rome
Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes
virtutem, et servasti verbum Meum,
nec non negasti Nomen Meum
I
know your works ... that you have
but little power, and yet you have
kept My word, and have not denied
My Name.
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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