XXVIII — PARTICIPATING IN HOLY MASS

Presence of God. — O Jesus, who in every day and every hour immolate Yourself upon our altars, deign to associate me with Your Sacrifice.

Meditation

1 — The Encyclical Mediator Dei exhorts all the faithful to “participate in the eucharistic Sacrifice not with a passive, negligent, and distracted attendance, but with such engagement and fervor as to enter into intimate contact with the High Priest.” To assist at Mass is not sufficient — one must take part in it: one must “participate.” In Holy Mass Jesus continues to immolate Himself for us, to offer Himself for us to His Father, so as to draw down upon us divine blessings. Evidently Jesus offers Himself through the ministry of the priest; but the priest performs the offering in the name of all the faithful, and indeed together with them, as the words of the Canon indicate: “for whom we offer and who themselves offer to You this sacrifice of praise” — which means that the faithful too are invited to offer together with the priest the divine Victim, that is, as Mediator Dei teaches, “to unite their intentions of praise, impetration, expiation, and thanksgiving with those of the priest, and indeed with those of the High Priest Himself.” As on Calvary the Most Blessed Virgin Mary did not assist passively at the Passion of her Son, but herself, uniting her intentions with His, desired to offer Him to the Father, so we, assisting at the Sacrifice of Holy Mass, can offer to the Father the divine Victim who is ours, because He offered Himself and was immolated for all of us. Our praises, our expiations, our supplications are things most poor; but when we present them to God in union with those of Jesus and fortified by His Sacrifice, we may believe they will be acceptable to Him and will be heard, precisely in view of the infinite dignity of the divine Victim. Jesus, Head of the Mystical Body, immolated Himself for us, His members, and being our Head, He belongs to us — He is ours; He is the Victim who, though already wholly immolated on Calvary for our salvation, wills to perpetuate His immolation on our altars, so that every day — nay, every hour — we may find Him at our disposal and each day may offer Him to the Father according to our intentions.

2 — “In order that the oblation by which the faithful offer the divine Victim to the heavenly Father may have its full effect, there is need of yet another thing: it is necessary that they immolate themselves as victims” (Mediator Dei). This authoritative teaching of the Church exhorts us to take part in Holy Mass until we become “together with the Immaculate Host, a victim acceptable to God the Father” (ibid.); wholly His will, even to the point of desiring to die on the Cross for His glory; we offer ourselves as victims to God when, renouncing every will of our own that is contrary to His, we strive to conform ourselves in all things to His divine will — both through the exact fulfilment of our duties and through the generous acceptance of all that God permits for us. And if duty demands sacrifice, if life entails suffering, then every morning at Holy Mass we have the opportunity to give our sacrifices the greatest possible value by offering — as Mediator Dei teaches — “together with the crucified divine Head, ourselves and our anxieties, sorrows, troubles, and miseries.”

On Calvary Jesus immolated Himself for our salvation alone; but on the Altar He desires to associate us with His immolation, because if the Head is immolated, His members too must be immolated. That a poor creature should offer in expiation to God her sacrifices and her very life — what can this avail? Nothing. For we are nothing. But if this offering is united to that of Jesus, then with Him, through Him, in Him, it becomes a host acceptable to God the Father. Returning thereafter to our occupations, the remembrance of the offering made in the morning will help us to be generous in accepting the great and small sufferings of each day, while the thought that in every moment of the day and night Jesus immolates Himself on our altars will enable us to associate our sacrifices continually with His Sacrifice and will spur us to live truly as victims in union with the divine Victim. What strength and generosity flow into the soul from this living and continuous participation in Holy Mass!

Colloquy

“O Jesus, may Your Sacrifice — the holy Sacrifice of the Altar — be the source and model of my sacrifice, for my life too must be a holy sacrifice. That it is a sacrifice is certain, because life is wholly interwoven with mortification, detachments, suffering. But in order that my sacrifice be ‘holy’ as Yours on Calvary and in Holy Mass, it must be vivified, offered, and consumed in love. Jesus, grant me a great love that may give worth to my sacrifice, that may render it fruitful for the glory of the Father, for the triumph of the Church, for the good of souls.

“O Jesus, O divine Priest, what shall I offer You as the matter of sacrifice, as a victim of love, in order to participate in Your Sacrifice? I will offer You my heart, my will, my very love, that all may be transformed into Yours. For it is precisely of this perfect docility, conformity, and abandonment that You give me the example in Your holy Sacrifice. Behold, then, the offering that I too make: a general and total offering to every disposition of divine Providence, to every divine will” (cf. Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).