“All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man.” — St. John Vianney
Would that we could have been present at Calvary! The sacrifice Jesus made on the cross is the once-and-for-all atonement for our sins. He died, once, to make reparation for our faults and failings, bringing us back to life, to life with God! The Letter to the Hebrews says, “He [Christ] entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (9:12). The Mass, then, the offering of the Eucharist, is the means by which this once-and-for-all sacrifice is made present in our lives. In the Mass, Jesus is not re-crucified; still less does he die and rise again. Rather, through the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, we are put in contact with the graces of the bloody sacrifice. At the Mass the priest stands in the person of Christ (in persona Christi), and through this true sacrifice the very same Christ offers his love and mercy for us now, as he once did on Calvary Hill.
LET US PRAY
Lord Jesus, you are the perfect sacrifice, the one who has redeemed my sins. May I discover in the sacrifice of the Mass the abundance of mercy and grace present, the mercy and grace poured out on Calvary. Amen.
PRAYER TO THE EUCHARIST
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
-Collect for the Feast of Corpus Christi, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas