This Is My Body
Today is Easter Sunday, one of my favorite days of the year. For Catholics, we celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday, but Easter is especially joyful. After preparing during Lent with sacrifices, fasting, almsgiving, repentance, forgiveness, and prayer, we experience a deeper connection with each other, with Our Lord, and with the Mass. As our pastor explained in his homily how we are all connected to “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” I felt such gratitude for the gift of faith. Then I thought about what I have not done to share this gift with others.
A few weeks ago I returned a phone call to a friend. When I mentioned that my phone is silenced when I am in church, she responded, “You went to church on a Thursday? To pray?” When I responded that I went to Mass, she said, “Your church has services every day?” I started thinking deeply about what we had said and I realized that my shortcomings were staring me right in the face. Each conversation we have at some point turns to Scripture and she always shares her love for Jesus. I leave the conversation feeling elevated, my burden of the day lifted. I have known my friend Myrna all my life and she has the gift of joy which she readily shares with me and everyone she meets. How is it that I have been such a poor friend that I have never shared my witness, my testimony, with her? Why have I never told her why I go to Mass?
As Catholics, we use the shorthand – “going to Mass.” We say it so casually, we ourselves often forget that we are “going to participate in The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” Yes, we are active participants and yes, it is a sacrifice. In every Mass, Jesus is on the altar offering Himself to the Father for us. We begin the Mass with Scripture (the Liturgy of The Word), which always includes at least one passage from the Old or New Testament, a Psalm, and a Gospel reading. We then follow with the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in which the gifts of bread and wine are presented to the Father. The angels who sang the Hosanna announcing to the shepherds the birth of Christ, are again present with us when we sing Hosanna right before Jesus comes again to be physically present. The priest acting in the person of Christ says “This is My Body” and “This is My Blood.” At this moment, the miracle of transubstantiation (change of substance) takes place. While the appearance remains bread and wine, the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus. Jesus Himself is re-presenting His sacrifice on the Cross to the Father. Every day. Immediately after, the priest offers Jesus’s sacrifice in prayer for the whole world. When we are at Mass, we participate by joining our prayers to Jesus’s prayers in interceding for the whole world. It is this daily offering of Jesus to the Father that brings mercy to our world and has kept back the Hand of Justice. Every Mass is an encounter with Jesus Himself face to face.
Every day Jesus is offering Himself to the Father for our salvation and offering Himself to us in the Eucharist. In this way He gives us a share of His Body, His Blood, His Soul, His Divinity. This is the key to eternal life. In Heaven, we are continually aware of His Presence with us. He invites us to live Heaven on Earth. He invites us into His Presence every day. He awaits us with love and graces to help us advance in holiness. Every communion received worthily, with love, increases our love for Him. It is in these moments when I invite Him into my heart that I have prepared for Him as best as I am able, that I feel the intimate presence of Him, Who loves me so tenderly. In these moments, I touch eternity and I am one with Him on Earth as I will be in Heaven. This is why I am Catholic.
