The Catholic Mass – Your Daily Blood Transfusion!

Strange title, you say?  Well, yes it is! But each and every Catholic Mass offers this life-saving gift to those who receive the Eucharist in the state of grace. The Eucharist was ordinary bread and wine before it was consecrated. Once consecrated, it becomes the physical AND spiritual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t see or taste it as the physical body and blood, of course, because then it would be repugnant to our senses to consume it. But rest assured, the bread and wine have been totally transubstantiated into Jesus Christ. Once consumed, our human blood is now mixed with the actual blood of Christ. Why is this important? The Old Testament gives us the reason.

Leviticus 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life.

It’s very simple: no blood in us, no life in us. But the blood that we normally have is human, sinful blood. What Jesus does at each Mass is to offer us a divine blood transfusion by allowing us, the body of Christ, to consume His precious blood as the Eucharist. The available grace from the Eucharist is infinite, but what we actually receive is limited by our lack of faith and by our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds.  So if you come in late for Mass (surely you wouldn’t be late for your parents 50^th wedding anniversary party or for your child’s 3^rd birthday party!), or if you are thinking of the buffet you will be eating after Mass, or if you are concentrating on the blonde three pews over instead of the passion of Christ, or if you have failed to confess that mortal sin before Mass, then the power of His divine blood transfusion will be constrained accordingly, by YOU, not by Him.

The Leviticus quote above also says that His blood makes atonement for our souls. How great is it that we have so much more than a “personal relationship” with Jesus as our Lord and Savior! Instead, His blood is atoning for our sins while coursing through our very own arteries, veins, mind, and heart! 

Grace

What is “grace?”  Grace is a share in divine life and saves us from hell. In other words, grace is a free gift from God that is a portion of His divine nature, and, over time, it overcomes our sinful human nature. The more grace one receives, the more like God he/she becomes.  Of course, our sins diminish the effects of grace. After a sincere confession, though, we return to the state of grace we were in before those particular sins were committed.

What is the Holy Mass?

A trend in the past decade or so has been to refer to the Holy Mass as “the Liturgy of the Eucharist.”  When said from the pulpit, I always think, “Hey, isn’t it also the Liturgy of the Word?”  The problem with the term “Liturgy of the Eucharist” is that, in my mind, it says that we are at a religious service where you can come and get the Eucharist. This is why, at least in my parish here in San Antonio, so many people show up 5, 10, 15, and even 25 minutes late for Mass, because, as long as they can get the Eucharist, they don’t really care about the Word of God espoused in the Mass readings and the sermon.  The Holy Mass is so much more than receiving the Eucharist!

Re-Presentation

An explanation that is almost never given anymore from the pulpit is that the Mass is a re-presentation, through space and time, of the original Last Supper and the Crucifixion of Jesus. At the Last Supper, or rather, the First Eucharist, Jesus said to “Do ‘THIS’ in remembrance of me.”  “THIS” is the changing of the bread and wine into His precious body and blood, and “remembrance” in Greek is “anamnesis,” which means to make a past memorial sacrifice present now. It’s MUCH more than just recalling a past event. Today we might ask a friend, “Did you remember your wife’s birthday?”, meaning did you sacrifice time and money to make her feel special? It doesn’t mean that you merely thought about it!

That hyphen in re-presentation is very important, because the Holy Mass is NOT a representation of, or a symbol of, the original Last Supper and Calvary. No, through space and time, we travel back to the upper room on Mount Zion, and to Golgotha, to participate in the original Last Supper and Crucifixion. Likewise, the original Last Supper and Crucifixion time travel through space and are both present to us now. In other words, time as we know it only exists here on earth. (The movement of the earth through space equals time.) There is no time in Heaven; everything that has happened, or will happen, or is happening now, is eternally present to God, and that includes the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. When we go to Holy Mass, we are really going to Heaven, where eternity overcomes time and space here on earth. We enter into, for an hour or so,  the heavenly liturgy that Jesus continuously conducts in Heaven to God our Father in atonement for our sins. 

The Bible and the Holy Mass

So where is the Mass in the Bible? Glad you asked!

Genesis 14: 18: And Melchiz′edek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.

Isaiah 62: 8-9:The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored;but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”

Malachi 1:11-12:“For from the rising ofthe sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. But you profane it when you say that the LORD’s table is polluted, and the food for it may be despised.”

Matthew 8:11: I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven

Luke 22:20: “And likewise the cup after supper, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

John 6:51: I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Hebrews 12:22-24: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.”

Revelation 2:17: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna,”

Revelation 5:6: And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, (Jesus is priest and victim in the heavenly liturgy)

Revelation 10:9: “So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.”

Revelation 19: 9: “And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” 

Of course there are many other allusions to the Holy Mass in the Bible, not the least of which is the “Todah” sacrifice of the Jews, or a sacrifice of thanksgiving: 

Leviticus 7:11-15: “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thank offering unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with cakes of leavened bread. And of such he shall offer one cake from each offering, as an offering to the Lord; it shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. 

In Greek, the language of the New Testament,  “Todah” or “Thanksgiving” is “Eucharist.”

Catholic Quotes on the Holy Mass 

“The Mass-and I mean every single Mass-is heaven on earth. Literally. To go to Mass is to go to Heaven.”

— Dr. Scott Hahn

“Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we ourselves do not know.”

“If we only knew how God regards this Sacrifice, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass.”

“The earth could exist more easily without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

“Renew your faith by attending Holy Mass. Keep your mind focused on the mystery that is unfolding before your eyes. In your mind’s eye transport yourself to Calvary and meditate on the Victim who offers Himself to Divine Justice, paying the price of your redemption.”

– St. Padre Pio 

“Martyrdom is nothing in comparison with the Mass, because martyrdom is the sacrifice of man to God, whereas the Mass is the Sacrifice of God for man!” 

– St. John Vianney

“The celebration of Holy Mass has the same value as the Death of Jesus on the Cross.”

-St. Thomas Aquinas

“Man should tremble, the world should quake, all Heaven should be deeply moved when the Son of God appears on the altar in the hands of the priest.”

-St. Francis of Assisi

No human tongue can enumerate the favors that trace back to the Sacrifice of the Mass. The sinner is reconciled with God; the just man becomes more upright; sins are wiped away; vices are uprooted; virtue and merit increases; and the devil’s schemes are frustrated.”

-St. Lawrence Justinian

“O you deluded people, what are you doing? Why do you not hasten to the churches to hear as many Masses as you can? Why do you not imitate the angels, who, when a Holy Mass is celebrated, come down in myriads from Paradise and take their stations about our altars in adoration to intercede for us?”

-St. Leonard of Port Maurice

“Know, O Christian, that the Mass is the holiest act of religion. You cannot do anything to glorify God more, nor profit your soul more, than by devoutly assisting at it, and assisting as often as possible.”

-St. Peter Julian Eymard

“One merits more by devoutly assisting at a Holy Mass than by distributing all of his goods to the poor and traveling all over the world on pilgrimage.”

-St. Bernard

So, go to Mass daily! Meditate on the Passion often! And give thanks to Him who gives us everything! You shorten your purgatory time with every Mass you attend!