Ite Missa Est

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Today is the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time for which the Scripture Readings include the following:

• Judgement on Israel's Enemies: Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13
• Praise for God's Help: Psalm 146:6-10
• Christ the Power and Wisdom of God: 1st Corinthians 1:26-31
• The Beatitudes: Matthew 5:1-12

As usual, Father Kirby gave an excellent homily at Our Lady of Grace, focusing on another of the Seven Sacraments, this time the Eucharist and the importance of attending Sunday Mass.

Venerable Abp Fulton Sheen

Father began by recounting a story of Archbishop Fulton Sheen before the age of television. There was a time when he would travel around the country giving a talk on the importance of the Mass. Having heard the same speech at least 90 different times, Archbishop Sheen's driver said to him that he could now deliver the speech. So on one such speaking engagement the Archbishop and the driver exchanged places, each dressing up as the other, and the driver flawlessly gave the the talk, at the end of which an astute person in the congregation asked a theologically difficult question. The driver (who was in disguise of the Archbishop) stated to the Congregation that the question was so ridiculous and so simple that he would let his driver (the real Archbishop Sheen but unknown to the congregants) answer the question.

Attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation are a requirement for one to be Catholic. Of course, that is not the only requirement as we see from the Beatitudes in today's Gospel reading. However, the Eucharist in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the source and summit of our Faith, giving us the graces that we need to live out the Beatitudes in our lives.

The Mass is not about we we receive but about what we give: our past week, our labors, our sadness, our laughter, our happiness, our pain, our joy, indeed, all our lives.

Our sacrifice without the Sacrifice of Jesus in the Eucharist is offensive to God the Father. As Isaiah 64:6 states:

We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

What we offer to God is presented first during the Offertory as we prepare our hearts and during the offering itself when we give 10% of our income as tithes. Thus these words are said:

PRIEST: Pray brothers and sisters, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God the almighty Father.
CONGREGATION: May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name, for our good, and the good of all His Church.

At every Mass Jesus re-presents his one time for all Sacrifice for all humanity. ASIDE: here an important distinction is to be made for the Protestants who deny the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Sacrifice which Jesus made on Calvary is made present again, hence the term "re-presented." It is NOT a mere symbol or representation. It is a presence shown to us again in this fashion. END ASIDE

It is to Jesus that we give our hearts and all of our previous week, both the good and the bad. Any focus on discipleship without the Mass is not possible, for in the Mass we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in order that our souls will be healthy just when we take medication for our physical selves, our bodies will be healthy. And thus, the Mass is about what we are called to live: the Beatitudes of today's Gospel reading. We need the grace necessary to overcome egotism, narcissism, resentment, pride, hubris, backbiting, and all the defects of character and shortcoming separating us from God. And we need the grace to share that which we have received.

Catholics do NOT have "services." We have Mass. While sometimes the Protestant language of the Bible-belt south contaminates our speech, it is important to note that NO Protestant service can possibly compare to what we have: Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Protestants do NOT believe in the Real Presence of Jesus. They deny what John 6:53-58:

53 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.

ASIDE: similarly to Catholics, Eastern Orthodox likewise have a valid Eucharist in their Divine Liturgy and a valid Priesthood to "confect" or "consecrate" the elements - bread and wine - to become Jesus' Body and Blood. It can also be argued that Orthodox Anglicans (those not in communion with Canterbury or the ECUSA) who have a valid Episcopate lineage (e.g., cross-pollination from Eastern Orthodoxy) and who believe in the Real Presence of Jesus likewise have a valid Eucharist. But NO Protestant sect - Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, Nazarene, etc. - has Jesus in the Eucharist. This however does NOT mean that they are completely devoid of Jesus. The reader would be well advised to read Dominus Iesus by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith concerning the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church. All that is being said is that Protestants, because of their rebellion against the Body of Christ in the 16th century, do not have the fullness of Truth, and most are today in that state due to ignorance of history and Christian tradition before their particular religious denomination (more than 33 thousand now) sprung up. END ASIDE

Now at the end of Mass the celebrant (priest or bishop) proclaims the phrase "Ita Missa Est." From my early Latin days in high school I would translate this as "Go, it is sent," where "it" may refer to the "Congregatio." Father Kirby rather humorously gave this translate: "Get out of here." The point he was making is this: Get out of Mass and shine Jesus' face of light before the world. The Altar where we receive Him in the Eucharist is where we obtain our strength, our food and our mission, and when during the Mass itself  the bells ring is where we silent offer Him our bodies, our blood and our wills just as He offered His own to the Father. Thus must we go to share His mission with the world.