Love offering of the Mass

Today is Friday and in our little town we get to have the Mass (Eucharist). There is nothing that I enjoy more than to assist at the Mass. That’s the truth.  I know that for many people that’s not so.

I do have one complaint about the Mass.  I get distracted just when the dynamic of the Mass hits its high point.  The Mass is not only a sacred banquet; it is a sacrifice of love.  Jesus poured out his love on the cross and he continues to love; he never takes his love back.  He is always self-emptying for the other.

Of course, the object of Jesus’ love is our Creator and all of us creatures.  In the Mass the great self-giving of Jesus is prepared sacramentally (through ritual that holds the reality) at the time of the consecration.  Wow!  What creativity Jesus had to think of how best to give us himself in an act of love! Joachim Jeremias, the great scholar of Jesus’ language, Aramaic, says that when Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me”, Jesus really meant:  remember me to God the Father.

Having before us on the altar the Body that is given for us and the Blood that is poured out for us, the dynamic of the Mass invites us all to unite our lives with the on-going love of Jesus in the GREAT OFFERING :  through Christ, with Him, and in Him is to You God almighty Father, in the unity of the the Holy Spirit, all honor and all glory for ever and ever.

I like that chance to say to God with Jesus:  I (and we) return all our love to our Creator.  The dynamic is terrific.  My complaint is that there are so many distracting prayers just before this GREAT OFFERING that I have to make such an effort to realize it is happening.  Also it would help a lot if all the people at the Mass, and not only the priest, could say the words:  “through Christ, . . . “.   The “great Amen” is not enough for me.   

While at Mass this morning I will try to “be with it” and not allow my “monkey mind” to stray me from the great dynamic of love offering.