Imprecision and outright felonious use of language has often led to heresy and schism. The Grotto News this week features an explanation of how verbal tinkering has damaged Catholic faith in regard to Holy Communion. Another way that truth can be abused is simply to avoid speaking about things that are important and even essential. Out of sigh, out of mind, as they say. Thus–as an example that has concerned all of us–the religious instruction of our children in the last thirty years-and-more has falsified the Catholic faith less by direct assault on her doctrines as by neglecting to teach them at all.

Today’s liturgy would direct us to concentrate our attention on the Holy Eucharist as the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and of the right worship that corresponds to it–a very necessary subject but one which perhaps gets a fair share of homiletic time in this parish. I want rather to speak about another area that concerns the most Holy Eucharist, and something that ought to trouble you also. It is the subject of the very definition, the essence, of the Mass.

We have been informed that Mass-attendance among Catholics is now at an all-time low. This statistic may be worrisome–especially when one realizes that to absent oneself from Sunday (or Saturday evening) Mass is a mortal sin, effectively making one hell-bound for a sin of omission. Disturbing as this news may be, it ought not to be surprising. The reasons for this failing in duty are many (unconsciousness of the Real Presence, for one, and the blasphemous and irreverent manner of doing what ought to be the celebration of the Mass, for another), but also numbered among them is the fact that the Mass itself is not rightly presented as to what it is essentially. It is not only that, in some places, the term "The Mass" is seldom used anymore, being replaced by other expressions, but that the reality of what is happening during Mass is being misrepresented.

What does the Church say of herself in defining this central activity of hers? The Second Vatican Council speaks clearly about this: "At the last supper, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood, by which he would perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, thus entrusting to the Church, His beloved Bride, the memorial of His death and resurrection." As a consequence of this action that we call the Mass is that, when it is being conducted–note this!–"the work of our redemption is carried out." That little phrase says an awful lot. The priest, in saying Mass, offers to God the Victim Jesus by whose immolation on the cross / God willed to be appeased. The sacrificial act of Jesus on Calvary is renewed in each Mass, only the manner in which the offering is made is different. The Mass, in other words, has the value, not only of praise and of thanksgiving (which it indeed has), but also of propitiation and satisfaction.

These, of course, are heady expressions, but I don’t want them to deter you from appreciating their significance. Propitiation means, simply, reparation, making up to God for the injuries caused Him through sin. The Mass is, so to speak, a way of ‘soothing the pain’ for God. As sin displeases, offends, insults, offends, / acts of propitiation please God and give Him honor and praise. Propitiation is then directed to God as an act of restoration. Acts of satisfaction–which may be the very same acts done by propitiation–concern the amends that counterbalance sin. After one’s sins have been forgiven in confession, one is still obliged to satisfy for them by doing good works against the damage that sin caused.

Nothing so compensates for sin and gives God so worthy a compensation for human malice as the sacrifice of Christ. Indeed, it is the only act that can do this in a proper sense. That is why the renewal of this act through the daily Mass is so necessary for the whole spiritual commerce of the world with God. It is not that God has a tendency to lose His temper and has to be placated by our Mass. Rather, it is that God is unceasingly "sent up" hate, scorn, mockery, and all forms of disobedience. The offering of Mass is the compensation, the "buffer" by which Christ wins God’s mercy and patience for us, who deserve His punishments.

This brief little explanation, hardly exhaustive, gives you some idea of the necessity of the offering of Mass. It’s not just a ‘great thing to do’ when Christians have a get-together. It is essentially the action of Christ the Priest who is offering Himself again (although without the physical violence of Good Friday) so that we can be God’s friends and have the needed grace to carry on upwards to heaven.

Now contrast this with the idea of Mass as many people have come to know it. Mass is not a mere series of celebratory acts that puts people in touch with each other. Rather, we are the most fortunate participants in the work of Christ, joining with Him and the human priest in the greatest act possible. Its ‘greatness’ does not derive from externals of the Mass–however fittingly solemn these may be–but from the essential and invisible thing that is happening in the Mass behind the visible things: Christ is being offered, God is placated, we are being purified and renewed, and graces are gained for the salvation of humanity.

There is much more that might be said about this one aspect of our subject. I feel that we need to have an occasional reminder, however brief, about why it is that we should come to church. It is for the most important thing in the universe. No Catholic with any understanding of it would ever miss the chance, to say nothing of the obligation, of being present for it.

Corpus Christi! I have to finish here with the thought of Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice, but I do want to point out that these essentials of the Mass as sacrifice are made possible only because it is Christ who is truly present in the most Blessed Sacrament.

Let us approach the throne of God’s mercy at this Mass and beseech Him to accept again the sacrifice of Christ, "for our good and the good of all his Church."