The call came in at 1:20p.m. on a Tuesday.
My professional association had run a nice “member spotlight” on me in its magazine. It wasn’t much, just a few pictures of me and my family and a nice questionnaire about my career and personal interests.
So, when a colleague called and mentioned it, I figured it was little more than a formality, a nice outreach. A few minutes into the conversation, however, I realized that there was more to the call.
In the article, I mentioned being passionate and actively involved in my faith. The colleague asked me some questions about my faith, obviously trying to avoid asking, “so, what are you?” For a moment or two, we did a strange verbal dance in which each of us tried to discern where the other was coming from. I finally decided to cut to the chase, offering a truncated edition of my faith journey: “I grew up in the Catholic church,” I explained, “but I left the Church and eventually became a Baptist minister. After six years there, however, God led me back home to Catholicism.”
There was a long silence on the line.
“Well,” my colleague said, “I’m sorry to hear that you found the truth and turned away from it.”
There was a longer silence on my end. How is someone supposed to respond to that?
For the next twenty minutes, the man on the other end of the phone attempted to explain every theological objection he had to Catholicism. He made many of the arguments that, at a certain time in my life, I would have made. I did my best to return fire reasonably, respectfully and charitably.
At one point, we were in a back and forth on the Eucharist, talking about what Jesus said or didn’t really mean to say, according to my colleague. “The blood that Jesus shed on the cross was a one time atonement for all sins,” he finally said, “so why do you Catholics believe that you have to ‘redo’ the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist every day?”
I’ll admit that, in the moment, I didn’t really know how to respond to the question. Honestly, I’d never really thought that’s what we’re doing in the celebration of the Eucharist. I dodged the question and, mercifully, wrapped up the conversation shortly thereafter. But the question lingered in my mind, “are we re-crucifying Jesus every time we participate in the Eucharist?” We are, after all, inviting God to miraculously turn bread and wine into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ and then we’re breaking the bread/body, holding it up for the world to see and echoing the words of John the Baptist, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
I dug into the Catechism in search of an explanation. This is what I found:
When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present.
-CCC 1364The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: “The victim is one and the same…
-CCC 1367
Maybe I’m slow and everyone else in the pews is already in on this reality but as I read those words the Mass at once became deeper and more mysterious to me. Just as the bread and wine serve as more than symbols of the body and blood, the Mass is not just a representation or reenactment of the sacrifice of Jesus. We, as participants, do more than stand in a church thousands of miles away from Jerusalem. In the celebration of the Mass, the sacrifice of Christ becomes present to us, we are taken out of time and connected to that day on Calvary’s hill. Further, in the “Holy, Holy, Holy,” we are connected with the choruses of the church in heaven, calling out praise to God for all eternity. The Mass is more than “church.” The Mass is, effectively, a portal through time to eternity.
I thought about calling the guy back and explaining, but figured that it might only lead to more “arguments,” for which I wasn’t prepared.
Plus, my mind was a little bit overwhelmed by what I’d just realized. As Catholics, we don’t need Marty McFly’s Delorean or Doctor Who’s phone booth to traverse the span of time. We only need the Mass to be time travelers.
The next time you’re kneeling at the consecration, close your eyes and meditate on that reality.
Beautiful. Thanks for such a clear and concise view and the associated text in the CCC. Looking forward to the meditation opportunity as well.
Thanks Andy. I agree. It’s one of those areas where the church makes its so clear and beautiful!
I once heard Fr. Groeschel speak at a conference and he explained the consecration at mass is when the veil of time is pushed aside and we are brought to the foot of the cross at Christ’s sacrifice. Had a profound effect on the way I have viewed mass ever since. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing. That’s awesome.
I had a conversation many years ago with an Orthodox monk where we discussed an interesting difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism on this matter. In Catholicism the Church teaches that the Good Friday sacrifice is made present to us–in our time, as it is–in each eucharistic celebration. However, in Orthodoxy the teaching is that we mysteriously become present to the paschal sacrifice in its time rather than ours.
This is an intelligent discussion. At my parish we had a seminarian in residence as an intern, now a priest serving a parish in central Texas. He came to me and asked me about my understanding on this topic. We agreed that we held the same view and understood where the Church is on the topic. However, the intern told me, “You know, I asked Father E. about this and he told me that the sacrifice is repeated every time.” Sometimes not even priests know.
In my mid 50’s, I finally discovered the catechism and it has enriched my faith beyond compare.
For 3 years my husband and I have been meeting with a group of anywhere from 8 to 14 people in a local coffee shop at 7am on wednesday mornings to discuss the catechism. We call it Catechism and Coffee. One of our members has broken it down and cross referenced the entire thing and he feeds it to us via pdf weekly by email, and then we discuss it. It is an amazing, truth- filled, and beautiful document.
We love doing it in a public place for the witness. We take turns opening with prayer and jump starting the conversation with what strikes us. We don’t debate its truth, but rather try to open the truth to each other.
It can be a daunting thing to read on your own, but doing it in bite size pieces with each other has been the best thing we have ever done to grow in our faith. We are not scholars, but everyone in the group, from the least educated to the most, always has something valuable to offer.
I can’t recommend the Catechism highly enough. I can’t recommend doing it in a group highly enough.
Thanks for your great article.
Gods peace be upon you.
Karen Quiner
It is sort of sci-fi, isn’t it? Except it’s not fiction! 🙂 Thank you for sharing this moment of realization with such honesty. So often we overlook aspects of our faith that we have come to take for granted!
I’ve often framed this mystery in terms of Jesus’ being outside of time. If you believe Jesus is God, then Jesus has always existed just as God has always existed. So if Jesus could be physically present on Earth in human form during a specific time span, he could easily be re-present in the form of bread and wine at every Mass. Jesus comes from outside of time back into time to meet us where we are.