Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
The Mass of Easter Day
Dear brothers and sisters,
We have gathered this Easter morning at the altar of the Lord because we have heard from others that “Jesus the crucified … has been raised just as he said” (Matthew 28:5-6). Do we ourselves know this to be true?
We have gathered this Easter morning at the altar of the Lord because we, too, want to encounter the Risen Christ, whom “God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible” (Acts 10:40). But if the Lord Jesus has indeed risen from the grave, if he is visible in his human flesh, why is it we do not seem to see him? The answer is simple: we are not looking correctly.
We have gathered this Easter morning at the altar of the Lord to encounter the One whom death could not hold, to look upon “love’s risen body.”[1] (cf. Acts 2:24). What do I mean?
 | |
| Detail, The Last Judgment, Jugement et des XV signes, MS Arsenal 3516, fol. 15v |
Our Master and Teacher offered himself as the Paschal Victim at the Last supper and commanded his Apostles to “do this in memory of me;” he offered himself as the Lamb of God to the Father on our behalf to take away the sins of the world (Luke 22:19; cf. John 1:29). The word which is translated as “do” also means to make sacrifice.[2] When the Lord Jesus commands the Apostles to “do this in memory of me,” what sacrifice is it they are commanded to offer if not the very same sacrifice Jesus offers?
Jesus does not simply offer bread and wine to the Father; there would be no need for a priesthood if this were all he offered. He offered something more: he offered himself, his Body and his Blood. From ancient days, “the Church has regarded Christ’s command to the apostles to ‘do this’ as their ordination to his priesthood of the new covenant.”[3] The Apostles handed on this priesthood to certain other men, who likewise handed it on to other men down to the present day (cf. II Timothy 1:6).
Because Jesus “died once for all,” his priests do you not sacrifice him again when they offer his Body and Blood to the Father; rather, they re-present the very same sacrifice Christ offered on the Cross on Good Friday, an offering of self that Christ Jesus has never – and will never – take back (Hebrews 7:27). “The consecration by the priest which effects the sacrifice is, more precisely, the visible manifestation of an eternal act,” the eternal offering of the Paschal Victim.[4]
There is, then, a very great mystery to be discerned in the celebration of the Eucharist and, indeed, in each of the Sacraments. Pope Saint Gregory the Great put it this way: “What was visible in the life of the Savior has passed over into the Sacraments.”[5] To put it another way, if we want to encounter the Risen Lord, we need only look to his Sacraments.
At each celebration of the Mass there is a double consecration, first of the bread into the Body of Christ and then, immediately afterwards and separately, of the wine into the Blood of Christ by the power of the words of Jesus. Why? Have you ever wondered why both are not consecrated at the same time?
On the one hand, the double consecration highlights the symbolic meaning of ordinary bread and wine. Contained in each is “the mystery of death and resurrection,” for “in order to become bread and wine, the wheat and grapes have undergone a sort of ‘passion’: the grain has been ground and grapes pressed, but both, after this ‘death,’ are ‘brought to life’ again in a more noble form, bread and wine.”[6]
On the other hand – and more importantly – the double consecration reveals part of what has passed over into the Sacraments of the life of Jesus. The consecration of the bread and then of the wine “constitute the immolation of the victim, whose blood, the vehicle of life, is drained from its body.”[7] To put it perhaps more simply, the double consecration reveals to us the mystery of Good Friday: the separation of his soul from his human body, which is to say the mystery of his Death.
Just before the reception of Holy Communion, a simple action takes place, one which may often go unnoticed because it is done so quietly: the priest breaks off a piece of the host and places it into the chalice. This is done while the priest quietly says, “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.”[8]
These words and this gesture also convey a very great mystery: “the mixing of the host, that is to say His body, with the wine, which is His blood, necessarily signifies the reunion of His soul (the blood) with His body, and therefore the resuscitation of the being.”[9] To put it perhaps more simply, the comingling of the Body and Blood of Christ reveals to us the mystery of Easter: the reunion of the soul of Christ with his human body, which is to say the mystery of his Resurrection from the dead and triumph over the grave.
If, then, we wish to encounter the visible Christ risen from the dead, we need only approach his altar. We must “think of what is above, not of what is on earth,” that is, we must look with the eyes of faith and not with those of the body (Colossians 3:2). If we do, we will encounter Christ because every celebration of the Sacraments is an encounter with him for what was visible in his life has passed over into them. This is why have gathered this Easter morning at the altar of the Lord.
If we look upon the Holy Eucharist with the eyes of faith, we, too, will see love’s risen body and become witnesses to the truth of his Resurrection. This is why “we are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!”[10] Amen. Alleluia!
[1] R.S. Thomas, “The Answer.”
[2] Cf. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., The Eucharist: A Bible Study Guide for Catholics (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Inc., 2013), 38.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Jean Hani, The Divine Liturgy: Insights into its Mystery (Kettering, Ohio: Angelico Press, 2016), 34.
[5] Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Sermon 74.2.
[6] Jean Hani, The Divine Liturgy, 59.
[7] Ibid., 69.
[8] The Order of Mass, 129.
[9] Jean Hani, The Divine Liturgy, 72.
[10] Pope Saint John Paul II, Angelus Address, 30 November 1986.
No comments:
Post a Comment