3 Hidden Divine Treasures in the Mass

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“The days are evil,” says St Paul, the days are evil. The times we are living in, the world we’re living, we all know that it’s a world full of pain, a lot of pain, a lot of suffering. And this suffering is not just an accident, but as St Paul says, “the days are evil,” or St John says, “the whole world is under the dominion of satan.” And it’s very obvious. It’s been obvious for many centuries that the world is full of suffering and evil, and there’s all sorts of different ideas about what to do with it. Many revolutionaries have proposed to fix it by creating a revolution in which everything is torn down. And so many times the results of the revolution, they’ve taken a bad situation, and they’ve made it much worse. That’s what we’re good at, taking a bad situation and making it worse. So many times, our anger is when we want to fix things, our anger just makes things worse. And I mean, think of throughout humanity as people are trying to say, what should we do to make things better? I mean, so many religions came up with, well, we’re going to sacrifice, make human sacrifices to these gods. And it didn’t really make things better, it made things worse. So we’re in this world, which is the days are evil, as St Paul says, the whole world is under the power of satan. What can we do? That’s one of the big questions that man has had, what can we do to make things better? What can we do to save ourselves, to save our world? And no one is more aware of that than our Lord Jesus. Jesus is not some idealistic dreamer who walks around with His head in the clouds thinking all sorts of nice ideas, but which are completely divorced from reality. Nobody is more practical than our Lord, Jesus, and that’s important, because sometimes God’s ideas seem kind of crazy to us, or unrealistic. But nobody is more realistic than our Lord. You know, for His human life here on earth, for most of His life, He was a carpenter, and you don’t become a good carpenter by not being practical. Nobody is more practical than the Lord, and nobody is more aware of the evil in the world than He is. He doesn’t know it just in His head, but He has experienced it Himself and experienced like nobody else, because no one else has felt the brunt of all the evil in the world poured on Him. And so He is very practical, and in a world in which satan has created, Paul the sixth, Paul the sixth spoke of the smoke of satan entering in the Church. And one thing that smoke does is we can’t see what’s going on. That can be very difficult in a battle. If there’s a lot of smoke, you can’t really tell what’s going on, where are the good people, where are the bad people, what’s, you know what’s happening. And that’s the situation in our world. It’s so much smoke and confusion of the evil, it’s very hard to know what’s really going on, what’s really happening, what’s really truth. And so that’s why it’s so important to have someone who can tell us what to do, who can guide us what to do. And so that’s what our Lord Jesus is coming to do. He is, the as the messages that we’ve been releasing have talked about, we’re in this great reconquest, this great battle for the salvation of souls, to save the world. And so the Lord is calling us to this battle. And again, no one is more practical than He is. So what’s He going to do? What is He calling us to, and why are we here right now this Sunday? Because for a lot of people, it would seem like coming to Mass on a Sunday has nothing to do with the real problems in the world. In fact, a lot of people see it as something just kind of an act, actually an act of trying to escape from reality, kind of pretend that things are, it’s kind of like a pleasant pastime for people who like that sort of thing, but it’s not really addressing the real problems. And so what is really going on? And why are we here this Sunday? And so the Gospel we have today sheds great light on that. This is the fourth in this series of five Sundays on this chapter six of Saint John. So it began with our Lord teaching the crowd for a long teaching, with certainly there were miracles of healing and so forth. And then at the end, He works the great miracle which they all participated in, of the loaves and fishes. And then, when they want to make Him king, He leaves that night, He comes to His apostles as they’re traversing the boat on the lake. The next morning, they’re in Capernaum, and that’s where He’s teaching now. And after preparing them first of all, by teaching on faith, then He gets to this critical point, which we have today. And so these are shocking words. They were shocking back then, and they’re still shocking today. So mysterious, and speaking of this, so that’s why the Lord has spoken about faith, first of all, because the only way we can understand what He’s saying, the only way, the only thing we can do is believe it in faith. And so He’s been talking to them about faith. And so He gets to this point where He’s going to have to reveal to them something which is so unimaginable, and yet it’s going to appear so ordinary. And that’s when the struggles we have with our Mass is, because it looks so ordinary and it’s so hard to believe what the Lord is revealing about it. And unfortunately, many of the drastic changes that were made in the liturgy after the Second Vatican Council have done a lot to attack this faith in this mystery that we’re celebrating. So let’s go back to what our Lord says, and this is the part which is so shocking for those who are listening to Him. He says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” That is what He’s been telling them, is that we need to nourish ourselves on Him, by act of faith. But now He’s going to say something even beyond that. He says, “the bread which I will give for the life of the world is,” and this is the part where it’s become so scandalous. He says, “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” And a little bit later, because the people are shocked and scandalized, and He says to them, “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.” And so let’s look at three divine mysteries that our Lord is speaking of and which are hidden in this very Mass that we’re celebrating. Jesus says, that “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” My flesh and blood. And with His flesh and blood, His soul and His divinity. What the presence, what our faith teaches us is called the Real Presence of the Lord, truly His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity become present. Because what mankind has struggled with since the fall is the separation from God, man separated from God, and God who seems so far away. And so the whole mystery, that the mystery of Jesus, that the mystery that we celebrate at Christmas, of the Nativity, and the mystery we celebrate at the feast of the Annunciation when He first becomes flesh. And our Blessed Mother the incarnation of God, the God who seems so far away, coming to us, becoming God with us, Emmanuel, God with us. And so the Eucharist is the continuation of this mystery of God with us, and that’s why there have been so many Eucharistic miracles. And especially not just, I mean, the Eucharistic miracles from many centuries ago, but right now, in these decades and these years that we’re living. The Lord is multiplying these Eucharistic miracles; like host to begin to bleed. As a way of helping us realize that it is truly His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, truly His real presence with us at the moment of the consecration, when the priest obeys what Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me.” The priest obeying the words of Jesus, says the words of consecration, “This is my body – This is my blood.” And it’s at that moment that this great miracle, which we call Transubstantiation, means the appearances don’t change, but the substance changes. The substance, it’s no longer bread and wine, but now the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord. So that first great mystery which it’s not something new, but that’s why our little mission, the Lord has been, the special task that the Lord has given us is faith, because it’s so hard to believe. Because, I mean, sometimes the Lord can give us special graces where we might feel it more. And like, for instance, just in this chapel, a number of people have told us of special graces that they’ve experienced during the Eucharist, and so that’s very beautiful, but many times the Lord doesn’t and so it just doesn’t taste special. We don’t feel anything special because the Lord is forming us in faith to believe not because we feel it or experience it but believe simply because He said so. Because that faith is the rock that protects us from the evil one. But as long as we’re just dependent on our feelings, those are very easy for satan to attack and manipulate. But if our faith is based on the Word of God, then with all this storm and of manipulation and lies that satan surrounds us with, we still have a rock of certainty, faith in the words of our Lord. So that’s the first mystery, the mystery of His real presence. The second we see here when Jesus says, so He doesn’t just say, this is His flesh, but He says, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood.” So this is what sounds so scandalous. And this the second mystery, is the mystery of sacrifice, the Mass as not just presence, but sacrifice, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In the Old Testament, God told His people to offer sacrifices of animals and plants, and He gave them this whole ritual, a lot of very detailed, precise ritual the way they were supposed to do that. And because He was using that to prepare them for a much greater sacrifice that was coming. And one thing that we forget easily today is how much human sacrifice and cannibalism has been rampant through so many cultures in the history of humanity, not just in one culture, or another culture. So we ask why were so many cultures doing this thing, which would seem so terrible, even sacrificing their own children. Like one terrible sacrifice to a god, an ancient god, the children were placed in a big, there was a statue of this pagan god, which was made out of metal, and it was heated, and the children were placed in the statue so they would be burned to death as a sacrifice to god. This is what we’re supposed to do. And this is, this is not just one culture, this is many cultures. And it’d be nice to think that that doesn’t go on anymore; but in satanic religions, in the satanic actions of ritual, satanic sacrifices are still going on in our world. And that’s what’s at the core of a black mass, is a human sacrifice. Also terrible acts of immorality and then human sacrifice. And so here we see a sad satanic mockery in which the satanic spirit is to use other people, to kill other people, even to consume their flesh, as the most graphic way of showing that I’m using somebody else and enjoying their suffering, because satan enjoys our suffering. That’s what he likes to do, is make us suffer and see us suffer. And so that’s a satanic mockery of what Jesus does. Jesus sacrifices Himself. He suffers Himself to give Himself. So it’s the exact opposite. Instead of causing someone else to suffer and using them, destroying them for my good. And how much, how much is that spirit in humanity? The spirit of using others and taking advantage of others and even destroying others’ lives for my benefit. And that’s what’s kind of intensified and concentrated in a satanic sacrifice. And so Jesus does the exact opposite. Not a God who uses others, who sacrifices others to himself, but a God who sacrifices Himself for His sinful creatures who have offended Him. And so this is the great mystery at the heart of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Because in this battle to conquer sin, to conquer satan, to save the world, we need the infinite power in a world which has offended God, we need the infinite power of the sacrifice of Jesus, Christ. And no one else can do this. There’s nothing else, there’s no other way. So there’s no other solution for mankind’s problem than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And so here we have the one true, practical, effective solution for this battle. There’s one scripture, one Catholic scripture scholar, his name is Brant Petrie, wrote a book called “Jesus the Bridegroom, the Greatest Love Story Ever Told.” A beautiful book, not very long. And he says he’s speaking of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, and how it’s understood in a biblical language. He says it is the sacrifice. Because what he’s showing in this book is how throughout all of Scripture, all of Scripture, from the beginning to the end, is telling the story of, as he says, the greatest love story ever told, of Jesus as the divine Bridegroom of the Church. And he says, “His sacrifice on the cross is the sacrifice of the bridegroom Messiah, giving Himself up for the sake of His bride, sacrificing Himself, giving Himself for the sake of His bride, which is the Church, and which is each soul which responds, each one of us.” And so that sacrifice on the cross, that all powerful sacrifice on the cross, so all the power is there. But so how come, if the sacrifice of the cross of Jesus is all powerful, how come the world wasn’t transformed at that moment? What is necessary? All the grace and mercy is there, but what else is necessary for that, for that to happen? How do we see lives being changed by the cross? When does it happen? It happens when they begin to believe in Jesus. And so it’s the act of faith which opens us to the graces which come from the cross. So all the graces necessary are in His sacrifice, but it’s only in the measure in which a person opens our life to Him in faith that we begin to receive those graces. And so the Mass is made so that these graces can continue to pour out into our world today. And it’s especially at that moment in the Mass in which the priest lifts up the body and blood of our Lord, and then says, “Through Him, with Him, in Him,” that is through Jesus, “with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father.” So in a world which is always trying to, our selfishness is always wanting the glory and honor to be mine, and the idols, the satanic idols, the idols in our world, idols are things that we give false glory and honor to. And so at this moment, we are, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, giving all glory and honor to He who is worthy of all glory and honor. So it’s an act of adoration, an act of offering, an act of sacrifice, offering to the Father, the one sacrifice which is worthy of Him. How can we offer a sacrifice worthy of Him? We can offer the sacrifice that He has given us, to God, man, our Lord, Jesus Christ. So an act of sacrifice in a world in which, because mankind has been infected by the spirit of satan, which is wanting to grab the glory and honor to ourselves. And the Mass is an act of offering all glory and honor to God. And there’s that what comes to my mind, because that’s such a special moment at Mass. A lot of times it’s done so quickly. And I remember feeling years ago that there are certain moments at Mass in which the Lord was saying, like, slow down. I’ve said before, I’ve said it in encounters, but what do you do say, like, when the Olympics or say you’re watching, I don’t know, like, maybe a basketball game or football game. What happens when there’s a great play or something extraordinary? What is it like on TV, they show it to you again. But how do they show it? They show it in slow motion, right? Because there’s so much, I mean, it’s impressive time when you see some of these amazing athletic acts, when you see it in slow motion, how much went on in such a such a short time. And so there’s parts of the Mass which I think if we kind of need to live them in slow motion, because a lot of times the Mass seems to people long and boring, right? Nothing more long and boring than a Mass. But if we realize what was really going on, we’d realize that there’s so much happening that if we don’t, if we’re not prepared for it, it zooms by without us even realizing. And so right now we’re just focusing on one of those examples, this moment, in which it’s called the per Ipsum, because in Latin, that’s how it begins, through Him, per ipsum. But the words that come to my mind are the words that the Lord gave us in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus, Christ, in atonement for our sins and the sins of the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Not for the sake of our goodness, but for the infinite value of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. And so the Mass is this great sacrifice. The Mass, the Mass is not a new sacrifice, but the Mass is beyond time. So Jesus died 2000 years ago on Calvary, and here we are, 2024 at this little mission, and in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass beyond time and space, we are united to His sacrifice. So it’s not a new sacrifice, but it’s a uniting. It’s a making present His one sacrifice on Calvary, we become present to His sacrifice on Calvary, and His sacrifice on Calvary becomes present to us, in our world today, in this Mass. So that’s the second great mystery, the mystery of sacrifice.  And the third mystery of union, of Holy Communion. When He says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him.” Last week, we were talking about what happens when you eat something. So when you eat it, it becomes part of you. It becomes united to you. And so this is a eating, is a type, a physical type of communion, of uniting. And so this whole mystery, remember, what’s caused all the damage in our world is when man, by sin, was separated from God. And so this whole mystery is to reunite man to God once again. And so we know that just hours before His sacrifice, Jesus, in the last supper, John begins it by saying. He begins the Last Supper by these solemn words that how Jesus loved His own to the end, loved to the end. And then when Jesus comes to the moment of instituting the Holy Eucharist, He says, taking a Chalice, and this is from Luke’s Gospel, “This Chalice, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood.” We hear that word at Mass that we probably don’t really think too much what that means. Covenant, what does covenant mean? Covenant is to unite two persons. We speak of a marriage covenant. Again, sin has separated man from God, and God wants the most intimate union possible with us, with His Church and with each one of us. A covenant, a new covenant that will come because of His, the transforming power of His sacrificed blood. So you know, it’s so difficult to find love in this world, because all the love in this world is always imperfect, and our heart is always searching for this love. And here Jesus is revealing the true love in this New Covenant of a perfect love of God, and by its power, is able to transform us so that we can enter into this covenant, into this communion. And that same book I mentioned of Brant Petrie says, he says, “looking in biblical in the biblical sense, in the biblical language, the Last Supper is a wedding banquet, the wedding banquet of God and His people. This wedding banquet, which is a preparation for the fullness of the wedding banquet, which St John talks about in the end of his book of Revelation, where he says, St John, rather hears these words, “blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb,” the marriage supper of the Lamb. And so that’s what is the moment of Holy Communion, is God leading us to a covenant, to communion, to union with Him. And that’s why it’s personal. Holy Communion is not given to us as a bunch, a group. It’s given personally to each one. And so presence, sacrifice and union; presence, sacrifice and union. His real presence, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass leading to Holy Communion. That’s what God wants with you. He wants to be united to you so that you can share His joy, and He has the joy of your presence forever. And so that’s why it’s such a challenge of faith, and in the final, final Sunday, next Sunday, God willing, we’ll come back to this response of faith. But so right now we can ask our Blessed Mother to strengthen us for faith in what the mysteries of this Mass, not that we understand it all, but beyond what we understand. Say, I don’t understand, but I believe all that the Lord reveals in this great mystery. And so because, so to this problem of a world which is in this great struggle with evil, the real response, the only effective response, is the sacrifice of Jesus, Christ. And His sacrifice, which can overcome all the power of evil and hatred by His infinite love and mercy, is made present in this Mass. And so that’s why we gather at Mass, to participate in this great battle, which in the battle is the battle to reunite man with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And so as we prepare for the moment of Consecration, when He will become flesh here, come down from heaven to become flesh, and then the moment in which we will offer with the priest His sacrifice to the Father. And then in the moment of Holy Communion, we remember those words. “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Blessed are you who are invited to the Covenant, the wedding feast with Jesus, the Lamb of God.” Amen 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
John 6:51-58