Story about Father Matthew Shelton…
Hospitalized and unable to say Mass…
For a priest very painful…
First time in a month on the Feast of the Assumption…
He said that Mass meant as much to him as his First Mass…
Then not again until Friday…
when I took a travel Mass kit and had Mass in his hospital room…
He spoke of the power of the words of Consecration…
and of the privilege of saying Mass…
Mass is a sacred moment for priests and for all of us…
a sacred event we all must treasure…
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
helps us to understand the Lord’s words in today’s Gospel
in a deeper, richer way…
in terms of our participation in the Holy Eucharist.
Jesus says to us that…
there are those who will meet Him face to face on the day of judgment…
and will cry out…
“Lord, open the door for us…
We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.”
And yet the Lord will say…
“I do not know where you are from. Depart from me…”
Saint Cyril comments that these are the souls who
“have believed in Christ…
and have celebrated the holy festivals in his honor…”
“Frequenting the churches, they also hear the doctrines of the Gospel…
but they remember nothing of the truths of Scripture.”
“…their heart is quite bare of spiritual fruitfulness.”
Those who have celebrated the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass…
and yet have not entered fully into the reality of the Eucharist
and have not borne spiritual fruit...
will be found calling out to the Lord on the day of judgment…
“Lord, we ate and drank in your company…
we even ate your very Body and drank your Precious Blood.
Lord, you taught us in our churches…
and we have sat in your presence.
“Lord, save us!”
Woe to those to whom the Lord says…
“I do not know you. Depart from me.”
The Lord is saying to us…
it is not enough to just show up…to partake of the Eucharist…
and to let the teaching of Christ pass in one ear and out the other.
The Eucharist is an intimate communion with the person of Jesus Christ.
The grace and the strength we need to live as holy Christian people
comes from immersing ourselves in the sacred reality of the Mass
and allowing the grace of the Eucharist to transform us
into the holy men and women Jesus calls us to be.
The Mass is the fountain of grace and the summit our lives as Catholic Christians.
It is a gift from God and from His Church.
The Mass is sacred and holy because of what it is…
not because we have created it…or because of what we put into it.
The Mass is not made sacred because we are here and actively participate.
Rather, it is the sacred reality of the presence of Christ.
And so, because Christ is present…
because the Eucharist is the most sacred and awesome reality
we experience in this life…
we enter deeply into the mystery of the Mass.
The participation we are called to have in the Mass
begins with understanding what is happening and what the rituals mean.
It further means that we are called to interiorize the reality of the Mass…
to make Christ the focus and the inspiration for our whole life.
The Mass is more than a Sunday obligation…though it is that.
The Mass…and our communion with Christ in the Eucharist…
is the very core of who we are as Catholics.
In the Mass, we enter into something so incredible it is beyond our imagining…
a holy event and a sacred reality…
the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross made present to us on the Altar.
In the Mass, we enter into the eternal and unending sacrifice of praise
offered by the angels and saints in heaven.
This Altar is the point to which our whole lives as Catholics are directed.
The moment of Consecration is the moment of greatest grace and joy for us.
In this moment…in this place…Jesus comes to say…
“I love you…I want to be one with you…
I want you to share in my Body and Blood…
I want you to be holy…and to live your faith in me with sincerity.”
We come to Mass with humble hearts…
eager to place ourselves at the service of the great mystery of the Eucharist.
When we enter into this great mystery…
we ought to do so with reverence…devotion…love…and dedication.
This means maintaining sacred silence in the church…
dressing in a way that is modest and respectful in God’s house…
and showing by our words and demeanor
that we are here to adore the Lord Jesus,
who comes to share himself with us.
Bishop Arthur Serratelli…of the Diocese of Paterson, NJ…
has written a series of articles in which
he laments that the world today has lost a sense of the sacred.
He points out that we must return to our source…
God our Creator…and find in Him the fountain of our life.
In God we live, and move, and have our being.
In God is the source of all life and every blessing.
In God we place our trust and our hope.
In returning to God, and re-centering our whole selves on Him…
we shall re-discover a sense of the sacred in our lives.
In re-centering our lives on the sacred reality of the Holy Eucharist…
and in the celebration of the Mass…
we shall find a loving companion in the person of Christ.
With Christ near us…
we shall find the grace to live
with our eyes open to the sacred realities of the world around us.
May we not simply show up to eat and drink of the Eucharist…
May we not simply hear the words of Jesus…and then forget them.
Instead, may we come prepared
to enter into the banquet of Jesus, the Lamb of God.
May we show by our lives that we love the Mass…
and treasure the sacred reality of the Eucharist.
And may we here and now begin to cultivate a sense of the sacredness of the Mass,
and in turn to live our whole lives inspired by the love of Jesus,
whom we adore and praise in this holy celebration.
With hearts open to the sacredness of Christ’s holy presence in our lives…
we go forth to love and serve Him…
so that when we meet Him face to face…He may say to us…
“My presence has been your joy through your earthly life…
come now and rejoice with me forever.”
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