Day 186: The Sacrificial Memorial (1362-1368)

• It’s Day 186!!

• THE SACRIFICIAL MEMORIAL OF CHRIST AND OF HIS BODY, THE CHURCH

• Let’s say it again, shall we?

• The heart of religion is WORSHIP

• And the heart of worship is SACRIFICE

• At every Mass the Holy Spirit is working through the Church and is making present the offering of this unique sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the liturgy of the Church

• The Church is also His Body

• Not only is it Jesus’ action back in time 2,000 years ago that is made present because of ANAMNESIS

• BUT…

• The Body of Christ, the Church, is being offered to the Father for the praise and glory of God the Father for all eternity

• So there is this remarkable synthesis of the Body of Christ once for all offered on the Cross

• The Body of Christ offered in the Mass and in the Eucharist and the Body of Christ, of the Church that is offered

• How beautiful is that?

• So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we thank you and we praise you. We thank you for bringing us into your body. Thank you for giving us your Body. And thank you so much for the sacrifice of your Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, for our salvation. Lord, without you, we are lost. Without you, we are nothing. Without you, there is nothing. You are the foundation of all being. You are the foundation of all truth, of all love, of all goodness. Help us to participate in your goodness. Help us to cooperate with your goodness. Help us to live and walk in your Truth. And help us to be signs of your love in this world, to the people around us. Lord God, help us truly to be your body as we walk this earth, to lift up those who are among us who have fallen, to bring light to those who walk in darkness, and to bring hope to those who are discouraged. Father, be with us now and give us your Holy Spirit. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• THE SACRIFICIAL MEMORIAL OF CHRIST AND OF HIS BODY, THE CHURCH

• The sacrifice is the memorial of Christ’s Passover

• BUT…

• Remember the word ANAMNESIS doesn’t mean it’s like Memorial Day or Thanksgiving Day

• It’s more like Passover

• Whenever it was recalled in the Old Covenant by the Jewish People, they are PRESENT once again to the saving work of God in the Exodus

• So whenever the Passover is celebrated, it’s not just a memorial of what God did for our ancestors

• It is what God has done and IS DOING FOR US

• THIS IS WHAT GOD IS DOING FOR US!!

• So when they celebrate Passover, they are celebrating their deliverance from slavery and death in Egypt to a place of life and freedom

• Paragraph 1364 says, “In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning.”

• The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is the same sacrifice

• When Jesus at the Last Supper said, “This is my Body given for you,” and of the cup, “This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my Blood.”

• That is the SAME sacrifice, the SAME self-offering, the SAME self-gift of Jesus on the Cross

• That is why we really believe in this is ONE DIVINE ACTION 

• From the beginning of the Last Supper all the way through the trial, arrest, passion, scourging, agony, the way of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the death of Jesus, His descent to the realm of the dead, and His Resurrection…

• THAT IS ALL ONE ACTION!!

• THAT IS ALL CHRIST’S SELF-OFFERING TO THE FATHER!!

• THE WHOLE THING IS ONE SINGLE SACRIFICE!!

• Because of that, when we celebrate the Mass, we are participating in that ONE SINGLE SACRIFICE

• IT IS TRULY PRESENT TO US!!

• Yes, Christ’s Body is present to us

• That same body that lived, breathed, walked the earth, suffered, died, rose from the dead, is the same body in the Eucharist

• BUT…

• ALSO THE SAME ACTION

• Is the Eucharist a noun?

• Yes, that is the Eucharistic species

• The Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus

• BUT…

• THE EUCHARIST IS ALSO A VERB!!

• This is the action of the sacrifice of our Lord God, Jesus Christ, to the Father

• At the Mass, the Eucharist is a sacrifice because it re-presents the sacrifice of the Cross because it is its memorial and it applies the fruit of that

• The heart of religion is WORSHIP

• The heart of worship is SACRIFICE 

• We get to participate in the very heart of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ, God Himself, gave to us every time we celebrate the Mass

• We also get to participate in the fruit of that offering where God gets to be glorified and the world gets to be sanctified

• At every Mass, the Father is glorified

• At every Mass, the world is sanctified and the body of Christ is strengthened

• When we choose to skip Mass and think it’s no big deal…

• BUT…

• If we realize our importance and realize that in some mysterious crazy way it matters to God whether we are there or not

• When we don’t show up and participate in the Mass, we don’t utilize our kingdom priesthood the Father is just that much less glorified

• The world is just that much less sanctified

• Not because Christ’s offering was insufficient

• But because He invites us to participate in His work 

• We get to do that

• Paragraph 1368 says, “The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church.”

• Yes, we have Christ’s presence in the bread and wine

• We haven’t talked about the term TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

• It’s an old term going back hundreds and hundreds of years

• It refers to the fact that the substance of what we are talking about is changed

• Substance being kind of a more technical philosophical work of the essence of that thing

• So you have bread and wine-that’s the substance of that is bread and wine

• And then in the Mass, that bread and wine is transformed and is now a NEW SUBSTANCE

• It’s now a NEW ESSENCE

• It still has the ACCIDENTS or APPEARANCE of bread and wine

• If you were to examine it under a microscope, it still looks like bread and wine

• If you were to drink enough of this after consecration, you could get drunk because it would have the same effects

• BUT…

• The substance, the “what it isness” is now something different

• It is now not a WHAT

• It is now a WHO

• It is now the BODY AND BLOOD, SOUL AND DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST

• So that is Christ present in the Eucharist

• We affirm this

• BUT…

• Christ is also present in the sacrifice of the Church

• Fr. Mike read a book called “The Priest is Not His Own” by Venerable Fulton Sheen

• Let’s listen to his story…

• Jesus wasn’t just the priest who offered the sacrifice

• He is also the VICTIM WHO WAS OFFERED

• He is also the SACRIFICE THAT IS BEING OFFERED

• Ok back to Fulton Sheen…

• If you are going to be a priest of Jesus Christ, you also have to BE THE SACRIFICE

• You also have to be willing to LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE ON THE ALTAR

• This is true of ministerial priests

• It is also true with regards to kingdom priests like us

• United with the ministerial priests and the Great High Priest, Jesus, we get to offer up the sacrifice

• We also have to be willing to unite our sufferings and our lives with Jesus Christ

• We have to be willing to be a sacrifice with Him

• Paragraph 1368 continues, “With [Jesus], she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ’s sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering.”

• You get to be part of the salvation and redemption of the whole world

• Remember, the Body of Christ is offered

• And if you are a member of His Body, that means WE ARE OFFERED

• In The Mass we are called to participate fully

• We are called to join our hearts with the heart of the ministerial priest whose heart is hopefully conformed to Jesus, the Great High Priest

• We are actively offering that sacrifice

• So what does this mean?

• Right now, wherever you are, you can offer whatever you are experiencing and unite it with Christ’s self-offering on the altar

• ALL OF IT CAN BE USED

• ALL OF IT CAN BE GIVEN

• Why?

• Because you have been crucified with Christ

• You have died with Christ in Baptism

• Now it is no longer YOU who live but CHRIST who lives in YOU

• So as often as you do anything, all of those things can be united to Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass

• All of them can be transformed

• For what?

• For two ends…

• For the glory of God the Father

• For the salvation of the world

• You get to have your whole life conformed to that

• Even if you find yourself stuck

• If you find yourself sick

• If you’d love to evangelize but you’re stuck at home

• God can even use that because you have died with Christ and now you live with Him

• Every moment of your life can be an offering united with Jesus in the sacrifice of the Mass, which is the sacrifice of Calvary for the glory of God the Father and the salvation of the world

• SO LET’S DO THAT!!

• Let’s take whatever it is we are going through…

• Whether it is joy…

• Whether it is success…

• GIVE IT TO THE LORD!!

• The highs and the lows…

• The peaks and the valleys…

• Can be used for the Father’s glory and for the salvation of the world because you are part of the Body of Christ that is offered to the Father in every single Mass with Jesus our Great High Priest and Eucharistic Sacrifice

• WHAT A GIFT!!

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!