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How we can receive more from the Mass – 24 (Christ, our Passover lamb)

“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) This passage, written by Paul, tells us more about the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Jesus than we may at first imagine. We read in Exodus that the Jews were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, and use the blood of that lamb to daub the doorposts and lintel of their house as a sign to the Destroyer not to slay the firstborn of that house.   They were then to roast the lamb and eat it during the Passover meal. In the Last Supper, Jesus renewed and transformed this Passover meal.   He introduced some changes that made it much more than just the Passover with which the apostles were familiar.   The lamb that was sacrificed for the original Passover meal, that delivered their firstborn from death and led to their leaving behind a life of slavery, is replaced by Jesus himself; his body and blood, which Jesus tells us unequivocally is the bread and wine .   Our sin alienates us from God ...
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How we can receive more from the Mass – 23 (Do this in memory of me)

What is a memory? That may seem an elementary question, but I suspect that it may be a deeper question than it first appears. Some memories are trivial with no potency, having little or no effect on us in the here and now.   Yet other memories can be very powerful indeed and, even many years later, affect us viscerally.   The trauma of PTSD is caused by the re-living of a traumatic memory – the sufferer is re-entering the very events that caused their condition.   That memory is alive in the present, re-lived and embodied in the symptoms of PTSD. For a more positive example, I recall watching a film where a couple who were going through marital difficulties attended a wedding ceremony of mutual friends.   As the ceremony progressed, they were both reminded of their own wedding – they re-entered and re-lived their own wedding and the vows that they made.   Unnoticed to others, one reached down to the left hand of the other, and caressed their wedding ring...
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Pilgrims of Hope - Jubilee Year

“Now the time has come for a new Jubilee, when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God” ( Spes non confundit, 6) 24 th December marked the beginning of the Jubilee Year with the opening of the Holy Door and the Christmas Eve Mass 2024, presided over by Pope Francis at St. Peter's Basilica.   Jubilee years have been a regular feature in the life of the Church since 1300AD.   But their roots go back to the Jewish tradition of marking a jubilee year every 50 years.   These years in Jewish history were “intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.” The theme of this Jubilee is Pilgrims of Hope .   Pope Francis wrote, “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, ...
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How we can receive more from the Mass – 22 (The Real Presence)

Just a few years ago, a study in the USA revealed that about 75% percent of American Catholics believed that the Eucharist is merely a symbol.   That’s really quite shocking.   And would it be much different in the UK? The Church, from its very beginning, has taught that Jesus is really, truly and substantially present in the Eucharist.   So why is it that so many Catholics seem not to have taken this to their heart? We are not the first generation to find this to be a difficult teaching.   When Jesus told the people, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.   Whoever eats this bread will live forever.   This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:51) the crowd reacted with confusion, horror and anger.   “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (6:52)   To his Jewish listeners, especially, the idea of drinking ANY blood, let alone the blood of a human, was abhorrent and struck at the heart of t...
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How we can receive more from the Mass – 21 (Daily self-offering)

“Show me your calendar, and I will tell you your priorities.” A few days ago, I watched a YouTube video featuring Bishop Robert Baron, where he used this phrase.   And there is clearly truth in those words.   We spend our time, we offer up our time to things that, for whatever reason, are important to us.   For example, I remember offering up a great deal of my time taking my children to their various evening and weekend activities.   I say ‘offering up’ because, frankly, if I were to have made a selfish choice about what to do with my days, they would not have been spent watching endless lengths of swimming or standing in the freezing wind and rain watching a rugby or football match.   But enriching our children’s lives is very important and so I offered up that time, and did so joyfully.   But what else is important to us? In our reflections on the Holy Mass, we have noted the importance of our full, conscious and active participation in the litur...
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How we can receive more from the Mass - 20 (Offertory/Self-sacrifice)

In a recent homily, our parish priest explained why he allows the collection to proceed before he prepares the altar, and then stands as the collection is taken to the sanctuary.   These are his gestures of respect to our own self-giving to God, made through the daily sacrifices we embrace to live in the light of the Gospel, and symbolised in our offerings.   As we reflected last time, true sacrifice is humbly submitting ourselves to God.   Our offering at the collection is necessary for the practical needs of our parish, but its significance is so much more.   It is a symbol of our life, our work, our labours.   And, in recognition that all comes from God, we offer our life and our labours to God in humble sacrifice.   Our financial offering is, in a very real way, an offering of ourselves.   And this is part of the priestly role that, as baptised Christians, we share with Jesus the Christ. “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and your...
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How we can receive more from the Mass - 19 (Offertory/self-sacrifice)

I suspect that the Offertory deserves and requires much more of our attention. Too often, we can be focussed on singing a hymn.   Or we allow our mind to wander before the ‘important bits’ start.   But we cannot begin to truly understand the Mass without an understanding of offering and sacrifice, and we really need to give our undivided attention to what is happening here.   Maybe, part of the problem is our understanding of the word sacrifice .   In modern usage it has a negative feel, as in giving up something valuable.   It can hold connotations of the brutal, barbaric human sacrifices made by the Incas and other ancient cultures.   Or perhaps the catechesis that we received as children wrongly suggested that the death of Jesus was to appease a God who demands bloody retribution for our sins. But true sacrifice stems from a deep acknowledgement that everything that we are, and everything that we have, comes from our Eternal God.   And the...
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