The Mass—Ever Old, Ever New

When we come to Mass, we arrive at an encounter that has been happening for the last two thousand years. As a matter of fact, it started in the upper room in Jerusalem on that first Holy Evening when Our Lord Jesus Christ was celebrating with His chosen band the ancient ritual of the Passover.

In the course of that Jewish Passover liturgy, which commemorated God saving His people from the darkness and slavery of Egypt, Our Lord took bread and wine, blessed them, and gave them to His disciples saying, “Take this and eat of it; for This is My Body given up for you.” Then over the wine He said, “Take this and drink; for This is the Chalice of My Blood… Do this in remembrance of me.”

From the “Breaking of the Bread” with the Apostles in the homes surrounding Jerusalem, to the celebration of this ancient ritual in the catacombs and house-churches of Rome, to the Eucharist celebrated in magnificent basilicas, cathedrals and monasteries, to people gathering in parish churches throughout the centuries, to the Masses celebrated secretly in fear of totalitarian regimes and hostile governments, to glorious Papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, to the humblest of chapels, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ has been offered and His Body and Blood given to God’s Holy People with great faith and devotion.

As the Irish people said time and again during the three centuries of persecution of the Church in Ireland, “It is the Mass that matters.” We can certainly proclaim the same. The very center of our lives is Christ present in our midst as He gathers us together to hear His voice in the Sacred Scriptures, to make His saving Sacrifice present and to welcome us to the Banquet of His Body and Blood. In this sacred Eucharistic action we find the Mass ever old and ever new. It is truly the Mass that matters.

Devotion to the Mass over the past two thousand years is not only a historical note, but is a living testimony to faith in Jesus, from whom the Church and all of us draw our life. The faith of generations of Catholics is a beacon for so many today who cannot see the truth of what happens at Mass and why the Mass matters.

We can say that every time the Mass is celebrated, we are drawn into the life of the Holy Trinity. It is an act of sacrifice in which the Great High Priest Jesus Christ offers Himself to His Father. The Holy Spirit, as the bond of love between the Father and the Son, penetrates into the heart of the humanity of Christ, and the sacred humanity of Christ is transformed into the perfect sacrifice (cf. John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, #40).

The great French Catholic author Henri Daniel-Rops described the Mass in these terms. “The meaningful core of the Mass lies in this, that it is par excellence a drama, which is ceaselessly enacted before us, a tragedy everlastingly prolonged.” It is the “drama” of God’s love poured out upon the world and the “tragedy” of the sacrifice of Christ for our salvation. He also added, “We might call it (the Mass) Dominica Passio, the Passion of the Lord. Herein lies the truth, for it is the Passion of Christ which inspires the Mass, that Passion besought, declared, manifested, and fulfilled. Everything in the Mass converges on this fundamental fact of Christian Faith, that our Redemption was wrought by the sacrifice of the Cross…”

This truth is what has attracted Christians for two thousand years to gather before the altar in sacred assembly. Nothing could keep them away! They have believed, as we believe today, that God has entered into our lives as one of us and has saved us by the mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection, which He makes present in His Body and Blood at every Mass. We are called to enter into this great mystery and to encounter Him as He gives us His life!

My dear brothers and sisters, as we continue on our journey deeper into the Eucharistic Revival in our nation and in our diocese, we must take time to learn about and reflect on the wonder of the Mass and its power in our lives.

How do we best deepen our love for and appreciate the wonder of the Mass? Simple. Come to Mass, come to Mass daily!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid

Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh