Daily reflection _ all is present

ALL IS PRESENT
The Mass is not a time machine, but it is the reality of Christ's sacrificial death made present for us on the altar.
Deacon John Ruscheinsky
Some years ago most newspapers carried a comic strip entitled "Alley Oop" which featured a time machine. With the proper setting of dials, upon stepping into the machine, one could be transported back in time to any period of history. Of course the time machine was only the product of the author's imagination. No device can actually reach back into historical events now long past. We are bound by time. But are we? Is it possible that somehow events of the past are not beyond our grasp, at least by the power of God? After all, God Himself is not limited by time, having no past and no future. All is present for God.
In the Mass God uses His loving power to transcend time. Now hopefully we do not think of the Mass as a time machine. That is much too simplistic and mundane an image. The liturgy does not thrust us back in time, but God, through the Mass, does make the sacrifice of Jesus Christ present before us so that we may share in it. Jesus died only once and cannot die again, as the reading from Hebrews tells us. The Mass in no sense makes Jesus die again. Rather the one sacrificial death of Himself which He offered on the cross is now made present for us on the altar.
A book I would recommend is entitled The Present by Spencer Johnson, M.D. He writes about three ways to use the present moment. First, he says, be in the present to be happy and successful; focus on what is right now. Use your purpose to respond to what is important now. Second, he says to learn from the past. Look at what happened in the past and learn something valuable from it. Do things differently in the present. Last, he invites us to plan for the future. Imagine what a wonderful future could look like. Make plans to help it happen. Put your plan into action in the present. This book is definitely worth reading!
The Mass is not a time machine, but it is the reality of Christ's sacrificial death made present for us on the altar. May we always hope in the security that is placed in Jesus Christ who died and rose for our salvation. Salvation history has a happy end. Let us in the present anticipate that happiness in our lives.