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.
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.