We can never forget that, on the last night of His earthly life, as Jesus faced betrayal, arrest, mockery, torture, and the Cross, He was thinking of us, not Himself.
At the Last Supper, the Lord wanted to give us the most profound, enduring, intimate, and saving expression of His love for us; wanting to remain with us always, He gave us Himself in the most Holy Eucharist.
This Blessed Sacrament is the greatest gift the Lord could have offered us; as St. John Vianney reminds us if God had something better or greater to give us, He would have given us that.
What we do at the Mass
The Mass is our participation in the life, death, and Resurrection of Christ.
We offer our lives, especially the past week’s prayer, work, joy, suffering, sacrifice, and love to the Father, in union with Jesus on the altar.
The bread and wine symbolize our gifts to the Lord and we receive our offering back, now transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ.
This holy exchange is the ongoing renewal, continuation, and indeed, the consummation of the marriage between Christ and His Bride, the Church.
In Mass, we thank the Lord for the inestimable gift of salvation offered to us through the Crucifixion, death, and rising of Jesus.
We have been saved from an eternal existence of sin, shame, despair, hopelessness, death, and separation from God.
We have been saved for grace, mercy, joy, peace, forgiveness, and eternal union with the Blessed Trinity.
Realizing what we have been saved from and who we have been saved for draws us to a posture of profound gratitude, worship, and praise.
Lessons from parents
When I was in second grade, my mother went back to work half-time at a Catholic nursing home as a nurse.
We would all go to the vigil Mass on Saturday night because she would be gone to work by 5 a.m. the next morning.
On Sunday, my father would get us out of bed and make us go to Mass again.
I never resisted going to Mass every week, but I did struggle with going to the same liturgy within 14 hours, often with the same priest and homily.
When I voiced my desire to stay in bed, my father would say, “Don’t you think God has done enough for you this week, that you can give Him TWO hours of praise and thanks?”
What do you do in response to such a statement, except get up and go!
My parents deeply understood the Eucharist as our response of thanks for all that God has done for us, especially the offer of salvation in His Son.
Maybe we will never fully understand the Mass until we feel in our guts the depths of God’s love for us, the worth of our soul to God, the fact that Jesus literally traded His life for ours on the cross, that we have been rescued from something absolutely dark and terrible and ushered into the Kingdom of light.
Ultimately, Mass is not about us being entertained, feeling good, or getting an energy charge to make it through the week.
It is about the worship and praise of God, gathering as the Church to hear the Word proclaimed in the ageless Scriptures, sharing in the Paschal offering of Jesus to the Father, and receiving the Body of the Lord.
The Son of God descends upon our altars, not to remain in golden vessels, but to be consumed by us, to be digested into us, so that we become completely united with Him in this Eucharistic intimacy!
What an astonishing gift! How much the Lord loves us!
Getting the most out of the Mass
I am convinced that, if every Catholic both understood and believed the truth of the Real Presence in the Most Holy Eucharist, our churches would be packed, not only on Sundays but every single day of the year.
I remember a debate I had years ago with an evangelical pastor, discussing the implications of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, which is Jesus’ beautiful Eucharistic discourse.
He told me that, if he believed in the Eucharist as Catholics do, that in the Blessed Sacrament, we have the fullness of Jesus Christ — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, he would go up the church aisle on his knees to receive such an amazing gift.
As we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, as vaccinations become more widespread, as the number of COVID cases dramatically decline, it is time for folks to come back to Mass.
Watching Mass online is a good, pious practice for those who cannot attend in person, but it is no substitute for being there.
The Eucharist is not a virtual event; we cannot receive the sacrament virtually; we need the ministry of the priest and the grace of the gathered assembly to fully experience the gifts which the Lord wants to give us in the Eucharist.
Mass is the most essential action of our lives, uniting us to the Lord, offering us forgiveness and grace, literally filling us with God’s presence and life.
Last year, we made prudential decisions about limiting public Masses and subsequently practicing many safety protocols to ensure the health of those who returned, when we reinstituted Masses last Pentecost.
These precautions and practices worked well; I offer many thanks and praise to our priests, deacons, parish staff, and laity who heroically went the extra mile to ensure that our people could participate in Mass with safety and peace. Thankfully we are in a much better place now.
If you are going to work, stores, restaurants, and the beauty parlor, you need to return to the Eucharist as well.
As always, those who are immune-deficient, elderly, or compromised in health should still exercise caution and prudence.
For the rest of us, many now in the habit of not going to church for a year, now is the time to come back to Mass and let the Lord nourish and bless you.
We need Jesus.
We need the Church.
We need each other.
We need the Eucharist.