Mass – 7 requirements/benefits
1. Mass is required as a result of the 1st and 3rd Commandments, the Last Supper, and the Authority given to the Church.
- First Commandment – Thou shalt not have other gods before me. That applies to this world, meaning we need to put God first. Our relationship with God should be our priority.
- Third Commandment – Keep holy the Sabbath Day. It specifically says this one day. To keep holy means to set apart (sacred) from the other six days of our week. Because the Lord started our Creation anew on the Resurrection, Sunday replaced Saturday as the Sabbath. This day actually should set aside entirely for God, family, and reflection on your progress with God in your life; not the work you do the other six days.
- Last Supper, Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” was done (actually remembrance is translated as “re-live”).
- The Church. The Apostles initially attended synagogue services on Saturday and celebrated the Lord’s Supper on Sunday. After followers were barred from Synagogue services, the Saturday services were combined with Sunday to make our present Mass.
2. Praise and Thanksgiving.
A) Praise. All prayer should start with PRAISE to raise our minds off earth and up to heaven. Praise for what we value most (worth-ship) fills a human need and orients us to heaven. Otherwise, the world leads the way and informs our beliefs.
B) Thanksgiving. We give thanks for everything we have. Gratitude and Appreciation are the basic ingredients of both humility and love, the structural foundations of Christianity. Everything good that we are, that we have, and that the future holds for us, is tied to God. Be grateful.
3. Forgiveness for our sins is what Christianity gave us. It’s the reason we will go to heaven. It’s also the reason for Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, and Last Rites (Anointing the Sick). The Mass/Eucharist wipes our venial sins if we ask, so confess them! Reduce your PurgeTime!
4. Sacrifice. The perfect sacrifice was made by Jesus. We don’t have to repeat that, but we should practice detaching from our greatest physical attachments. Also, we can attach our “sufferings” to his, did you know that? When you do, grace and wisdom flow back to you. Attach them!
5. Grace! Grace is supernatural power from God. The Mass and Eucharist confer GRACE. Grace helps transform our souls and increases our ability to love of God and neighbor. In this intimate meal with Christ, our friendship and yoke is strengthened. Note: In receiving the Eucharist, we pray to become what we have consumed.
6. Community of believers = Community of saints and the US/Church = Body of Christ. God created "us," not “I.” Christ said, “Our” Father, not “My” Father. God is Love and Love is relational, not individual. Love requires we serve others and participate in enhancing our community
7. 7th Day - every Mass goes with us to Judgment Day and pleads for our pardon, diminishes our debt in purgatory, and ushers in Heaven.
JOHN 6
In John 6 after Jesus feeds bread to 5000 people, he gives a lecture on eating his body that scared off many people. Yet he could not have been more explicit:
“Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they died… but I am the living bread which came down from heaven and whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
When the people began grumbling about this, Jesus didn’t back down or try and explain it as metaphorical language – he doubled down on it!
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Many Jews left.
Did Jesus back off this time, or explain to the disciples that he was just speaking symbolically?
No! Jesus said to the Twelve:
“Are you going to leave, too?”
I would imagine there was a pause as the Apostles swallowed hard.
Then Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life… and are the Holy One of God.”
Okay, so now let's discuss transubstantiation!
Transubstantiation is just a fancy philosophical term used by the church to describe the miracle of what Christ did with the Bread and Wine, beginning at the Last Supper and thereafter.
Philosophically, a thing is made up of form and substance, with form being the external appearance and substance being the essence, or what the thing actually is. Therefore, “Transformation” would not be accurate since the external appearance is unchanged. Jesus changed the substance, or the essence, of the bread and wine into himself.
That is how they came up with the term “Transubstantiation.”
Transubstantiation= Latin: trans (change)+substance (essence); the changing of one substance into another.
Q: Who are we? Are we the sum total of our exterior appearances, or are we our soul, which is invisible and includes our mind, will, and conscience?
We are our soul. If we cut off your right arm, are you still you? Of course. How about if you lost both your legs … still you? What if we removed your hair and eyes? … still you? Indeed, still you!
Thomas Aquinas called our physical attributes “accidents.” By that he means they are secondary – because they don’t determine who we are.
If this is true, then you can say the same thing about the physical attributes of the bread and wine, right? If we grant that Jesus, who is God, can “incarnate” himself into the B&W – similar to how he incarnated himself into human form. Just as he veiled his divinity under his humanity, he continues to veil himself in the Eucharist.
Q: How did the OT foreshadow the Transubstantiation of the bread?
Recall the “Bread of the Presence” that started with the unblemished lamb sacrificed at the first Passover the night before they escaped Egypt. They were required to eat the lamb.
Strangely, God then required the Jews to maintain fresh “Bread of the Presence” every week at the Ark of the Covenant and then at the Temple for the next 1,300 years. The Jews saw this as mysterious. What did this “Bread of the Presence” have to do with their Passover and freedom?
Now we know. Jesus is the sinless (unblemished) lamb of God, and the people have to eat it, but Jesus was kind enough to put himself into the bread first. Ahhh, so that’s the reason for the Bread of the Presence. Now it’s the Real Presence!
Q: How did the OT foreshadow the Transubstantiation of the wine?
Once again, the blood from their sacrificed unblemished lamb on the night of the first Passover had to be put on their doorpost mantels so death would pass over them, commencing their freedom from slavery.
The wine that had to be maintained at the Ark of the Covenant thereafter – and then at the Temple – was also mysterious.
Now we know! That wine was the placeholder for Jesus blood, which would be poured out for our sins, for our freedom – and Jesus kindly transubstantiates the wine into his blood at the Last Supper.
Q: What was meant by Jesus saying, “Do this in remembrance of me?”
It is important to understand the importance and emphasis on the word ‘this.” What does it mean to “do this”?
Notice he doesn’t say ‘This bread is my body,’ he said “This” is my body because “this” was already his body when he said it.
He didn’t say ‘This wine is my blood;’ he said, “This” is my blood, because “this” was already his blood when he said it.
When he said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” what was he saying? Do what? Do “this” because “this” was already the transubstantiated bread and wine!
Q: Some critics have said whatever Jesus did for the Apostles with the bread and wine, or the power to forgive, was never intended to extend beyond the Apostles. True?
No. Jesus did not limit this gift to just the Apostles – or just to first century Jews, no more than he limited his coming to earth and the offer of salvation to just a few select people. What he did was quite obviously done for the whole world.
Q: Some Protestants claim the bread and wine was merely symbolic and others who repeat communion like the Catholics claim that Jesus is truly present. Please comment.
As for merely symbolic, ask them to reread John 6:22-69. As for the second scenario, I am aware some denominations say Jesus is really present, but if you ask them to clarify, they will likely tell you Jesus is really present spiritually, but not body, blood, soul, and divinity. That is not the same.
When we pray to God, he is there with us spiritually. However, in the Eucharist, Jesus wants to participate fully with us in his humanity and in our humanity, not just spiritually.
What Jesus instituted and accomplished by entering into the bread and wine at all future Mass celebrations was his ability to actively participate in the saving work of all mankind, no matter where a person was on earth or what time or epoch they lived.
“Behold, I am with you all days, even to end of the world” (Mt 28:20). He wasn't kidding.
Review
It's normal – and understandable – to think, "Ya know, this thing would be a whole lot easier if Jesus had just left out those words about eating his body and blood."
Who wouldn't agree with that?
But here's the point - Jesus went through all this trouble to become a human for us and die on a cross for us so that he could what?
So that he could take his humanity back with him into the Trinity, which is what opens the door for all humans to go there, too. His human experience - his human-ness, his body and blood – is the door, our door. It is his humanity that we get to grab hold of when we “pass over” from this life into the next. Without “this,” we will be all dressed up for our own funerals with nowhere to go.
Perhaps you have noticed that priests always end their prayers by saying, "in Jesus' name," or "through Christ our Lord." That’s because no truer words could be said.
This is the meaning of Jesus’ words when he said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing. I am the vine, you are the branches."
Jesus’ humanity and his human experience before and after the Resurrection is our Passover ticket out of here and into heaven.
Metanoia!
Ron
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