
The
Most Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass
A Primer
for Clueless
Catholics
Part 6
“I Die
with Thee, O, Christ ...!”
When
you assist at Mass (for that is what you
are really doing, you are actively
“assisting”,
not passively “attending”,
as we so often say), you have a very real
part and a very real place in the drama
that is about to unfold before you, a drama
into which you will be called, not as a
spectator, but as a participant.
A participant in what?
In the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus Christ
on Calvary.
Really?
Really.
The only difference between your
being actually present at the foot of the
Cross outside the walls of Jerusalem 2000
years ago, next to Mary, St. John and the
Magdalene — and your being present at the
Altar before which you kneel at Church during
the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is this:
the mere closing of your eyes!
It is the difference — the very same difference — that
Mary, that St. John, and that the Magdalene
experienced when they, too, closed their
eyes at the foot of the Cross upon which
Jesus hung before them.
Did He cease to be on the Cross when they closed their
eyes and could physically see Him
no more? Did Jesus disappear? Go away? Cease
to be? The skin covering their eyes, your
eyes, my eyes, is the thinnest epidermal
membrane (0.05 mm thin) in the human body.
But it was — it still is — sufficient to
conceal Him from us.
In the case of Mary, John, and the Magdalene, it concealed
Him when their eyelids closed.
In our case, it conceals Him when they are
open! His presence was revealed
to them when their eyes were opened. It
is only revealed to us when our eyes are
closed. In both instances it is not the
case that He was
there — and in the blink of an eye is no
more – but that He is
there!
At the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are
present at the death
of Christ. We are present at His crucifixion!
It is happening before us!
How many times have we said, “Oh,
would that I were there! ... there to stand
before Him ... to share in His Passion,
to stand at His feet ...!”
You are!
But even more than present at this
Sacrifice, we participate
in it, and we do so in a two-fold
manner:
Through our
Baptism, we must remember, we were baptized
not only into His life, but also into His
death!
For this reason, Archbishop Fulton Sheen once so poignantly
said that each of us should, at the
Elevation (the moment when the Priest
lifts up of the Host that is
Christ's Body, the Chalice that
is Christ's Blood —
when He holds up Jesus Christ Himself,
in the most perfect offering to the Father
— saying, “Through
Him, With Him, in Him, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit all glory and honor is Yours,
Almighty Father, forever and ever”
— that at that moment we should, from our
hearts, from the depths of our being, utter
in all truth: “I
die with Thee, O Christ, on Calvary!”
____________________________________________
What we
have learned today:
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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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