A Beacon Of Light… Why We Must Attend Mass Regularly

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON JR.

(Editor’s Note: Fr. Richard D. Breton Jr. is a priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Conn.)

• + + Several weeks ago, I wrote regarding the Eucharistic Revival, which the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has begun. For us as Catholics, it is imperative that we fully participate in this much-needed renewal of our belief in the Eucharistic Lord. As a way of partaking in the Eucharistic Revival in the United States, this week I will offer a simple reflection on the importance of attending Mass regularly. As we journey through the revival, I will periodically offer reflections like this.
  Each week we attend Sunday Mass, pray the prayers, and participate in the sacred actions unfolding before us, but do we know what we are doing? Do we know why we are called to participate in the Eucharist?
  In order to answer these questions, let’s take a journey back in time to the Garden of Eden. God was in the midst of creating the world and after creating the heavens and the Earth, the sea and the skies, the birds, and the animals too, something was missing. That something was humanity.
  God created humanity in the persons of Adam and Eve. He gave them authority over the whole garden in all its wonder. This new humanity was very pleasing to God, and He recognized the creation of man and woman as the greatest of creation. There was one stipulation, however: Do not have anything to do with the tree in the middle of the garden, you are not to eat of that tree, God told them. That tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve agreed!
  Soon, however, the agreement between God and humanity would be tested. In the garden was a slippery, slimy, sly conniving serpent known as the evil one. The serpent convinced Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them they did not have to listen to God. He said they could be like God. Do you want to have the knowledge of God?, the evil serpent asked. Then eat and have your fill, don’t worry, nothing will happen.
  And so, they ate and were self-satisfied. But something happened — the feelings of joy and happiness, the feelings of peace and bliss were transformed in an instant! The sanctifying grace they enjoyed, as the greatest of all creation, was taken away from them. They became ashamed and scared and hid themselves from God. They had disobeyed God. The garden of paradise becomes tarnished by the selfish sin of our first parents. Humanity had sinned! God was saddened, but He had already put in motion a plan to redeem His greatest creation: humanity.
  And so, the plan began: We call it operation redemption! It included Noah and his Ark. It included Moses and the Israelites. It included the prophets like: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Baruch. It included people like Samuel, Jonah, and even a whale. But still no one listened. So, God had to take extreme measures! God had to do it Himself.
  So, with the help of a virgin girl named Mary, Jesus was born as one of us, in all things but sin. God came to Earth to begin the saving action of redeeming humanity’s fallen state. He came to visibly show us the way, the truth, and the life; that there was a way to restore redemption. God takes humanity by the hand and walks with us to the precise moment of our own redemption. God walks us through the ups and downs of living this corrupt life, and brings us to Calvary.
  At Calvary, the ancient sin of Adam is crushed, by the wood of the cross on which Jesus reclaims our broken humanity. This salvific action restores it. The Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension, united together, secure for us the gift of redemption.

The New Covenant

Each time we celebrate Mass, we return to the very moments of the Last Supper. The Last Supper commemorates the Passover Meal, which is the celebration of the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt as they journey to the Promised Land. This supper usually would have included the consuming of a sacrificial lamb, but at the Last Supper, Jesus offers Himself as the Lamb of Sacrifice.
As Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples, He was establishing with His people a New Covenant with Himself. In the Jewish Passover celebration, it was traditional to offer a Lamb as the sacrifice. But Jesus deviates from this tradition in order to raise up the Passover celebration from celebrating Israel’s delivery from slavery to the promised land, to humanity’s deliverance from the sin of Adam and Eve. He offers Himself as the Sacrifice of our redemption.
At the Last Supper, with His disciples, He takes ordinary bread and says: “Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is My Body, which will be given up for you.” Then He takes ordinary wine and says: “Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the Chalice of My Blood, which will be poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sin. Do this is memory of me.”
The former covenants of the Old Testament are united with the New Covenant of Christ; the sacrifice offered once and for all. Then Jesus instructs the disciples to “do this in memory of me.”
It is through the actions of Christ at the Last Supper that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is instituted. Similarly, at that precise moment Jesus institutes the priesthood, giving His disciples the responsibility of continuing what He had just celebrated with them.
Following the Last Supper, Jesus takes humanity by the hand and walks with them along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. They jeered Him, they mocked Him, they even spat upon Him, but Jesus kept going because He was carrying the entire weight of the human race upon His shoulders. He was holding humanity by the hand and leading us to the very place where the most visible action of God’s love was to be seen by all. Jesus was going to offer His last breath, in order to renew within us the breath of God’s everlasting love.
In creation, it was the breath of God that gave life to all creatures. The sin of Adam and Eve forfeited, in a sense, the life-giving breath of God within us.
So, Jesus, as He hangs on the cross, transforms the lifeless breath lost in the Garden, and refreshes us with the breath of redemption.

The Plan Of Our Salvation

During the Second Vatican Council, there was a document written regarding the liturgy entitled Sacrosanctum Concilium, dedicated to the importance of the Sacred Liturgy. In this document it states:
“At the Last Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and Resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 47).
At the Last Supper Jesus, who is God, having taken humanity by the hand, gives us the food through which we are nourished on the road to redemption. For us, the Mass is the greatest gift we have to help us achieve our redemption. The Mass is the singular and eternal sacrifice that will lead us to our redemption.
This is why we must work tirelessly to restore the Mass to the rightful place of honor it must have in our lives. The Mass is where we encounter the Lord, and He encounters us. The Mass is where we offer adoration, praise, and thanksgiving for the gift of redemption. Without the gift of the Mass, we would have no way of participating in this plan of our salvation.