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The Holy Mass as renewal of the Covenant.

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‘Behold, the days are coming?, says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.? During the Last Supper, Jesus anticipated what shortly thereafter he was to accomplish in his death. He showed his disciples what he was anxious to do, what he was soon to carry out ?the sacrifice of his Body and Blood for everyone. The Last Supper is an anti?cipation of the sacrifice of the Cross. When, twenty-seven years later, Saint Paul would quote these words of Jesus in the First Letter to the Corinthians: ?This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me?.

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The word commemoration harkens back to the Hebrew word which signifies the Jewish feast recalling the flight from Egypt and the Covenant made on Mount Sinai. During this feast the Jews not only remember the past event but they continued it generation after generation. When the Lord commands the Apostles, ?Do this in remembrance of me?, he is not just asking them to remember a single moment. He is asking. them to renew

the sacrifice of Calvary. ???????????

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This Covenant is renewed each and every day throughout the entire world wherever the Holy Mass is celebrated. The priest performing each Mass re-presents, that is to say, he makes present once again, in a mysterious manner, the same sacrifice which Christ offered on Cal?vary. The work of our Redemption takes place here and now. It is as if the twenty centuries separating us from Cal?vary had disappeared. The New Covenant of the Eucharis?tic Sacrifice becomes especially manifest in the moment of Consecration. It is at this moment that we should make heartfelt acts of faith and love.

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Let us take advantage of some guidelines given to pri?ests on how to celebrate the Mass, in order to help us live the sacrifice with ever greater devotion: After uttering the words which bring Christ down upon the altar, look at the sacramental species with the eyes of faith. As you kneel, see the legions of angels which surround Christ and adore him with profound reverence. This sight should make you exceedingly humble. In the elevation, contemplate Christ elevated on the Cross. Ask Him to bring all things to Him?self. Make fervent acts of faith, hope, love, adoration, humility, saying with the mind, ‘Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! My Lord and my God! ?I love you, my God. I adore you with my whole heart and soul?.

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You may also renew the intention of the Mass which you are celebrating, offering up the Eucharist according to its four ends. But when you lift up the chalice, make sure to remember in a very contrite way that the blood of Christ

has been shed for you, even though you have oftentimes despised it. Adore him so as to make up for your?past neglect. We have to fortify our faith and love in these moments of the Consecration.

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Love for the Holy Sacrifice.

How lovely is thy dwelling place, 0 Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

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With what love and reverence we should approach Holy Mass! There, in this Holy Sacrifice, is to be found the sublime spring of grace to which every generation will repair for strength as man makes his way towards eternity. There we will find not only grace, but the Author of all grace.

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Whenever we prepare to celebrate or participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, we have to do so with an intensity that binds us closer and closer to Jesus Christ, the High Priest. As Saint Paul tells us: ?Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus . We offer the Supreme Sacrifice through him and with him and in him?. We offer up ourselves. ?One detail which will help us foster this union with Jesus Christ in the Mass has to do with our manner of participating in the Liturgy. We need to be serious, pious and active, recollected in spirit, our soul united with our body in prayerful harmony. We have to give our full attention to the readings and the acclama?tions. During the times reserved for silent prayer, we ought to make acts of faith and love. We should ask the Blessed Virgin to teach us how to be lovingly attentive at the moment of the consecration and when we receive Jesus in Communion.? Other details to keep in mind relate to our punctuality and the way we dress.

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A man who fails to love the Mass, fails to love Christ!. We must make an effort to ‘live’ the Mass with calm and serenity, with devotion and affection. Those who love acquire a finesse, a sensitivity of soul that makes them notice details that are sometimes very small, but that are important because they express the love of a passionate heart. This is how we should attend the Holy Mass. And this is why I have always suspected that those who want the Mass to be over quickly show, with this insensitive attitude, that they have not yet realized what the sacrifice of the altar means.

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Our time of thanksgiving after Mass sums up these very special moments of the day which can have such a decisive influence on our work, on our family life, on our cheerful dealings with others, on our peace and joy. Lived in this fashion, the Mass will never be an isolated event, but instead will serve us as real spiritual nourishment. The Mass will give to our actions an eternal meaning. The Mass will help us to live as children of God and co?redeemers with Christ.

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We should try to be at the side of Our Lady during the holy Mass, just as she stood by her Son on Calvary. As we offer up Jesus to the Father, we offer ourselves with him through the intercession of Mary. Most Holy Father, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary I offer you Jesus, your beloved Son. I offer myself through him, with him and in him for all his intentions, in the name of all creatures.

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Fr. Francis Fernandez (In Conversation with God)

Commenting on this, St Bernard says: The time will come when Jesus will not be offered in the temple nor in the arms of Simeon, but outside the city walls on the arms of a cross. The time will come when he will nor be ransomed with money but will himself redeem others with his own blood, for God the Father has sent him as a ransom for his people. The suffering of his Mother, the sword that will pierce her soul, will have as their only cause the agony of her Son, his persecution and death, the uncertainty about when these things will happen, and the resistance to the grace of the Redemption, which will be the ruin of many. Mary’s destiny is bound up with that of Jesus, in its operation, and without any other possible reason. The joy of the Redemption and the pain of the Cross are inseparable in the lives of Jesus and Mary, as if God, through his most beloved creatures in the world, wished to show us that happiness is to be found close to the Cross.

Right from the start then, the lives of Our Lord and of his Mother are stamped with the sign of the Cross. To the joy of the first Christmas is soon added privation and anxiety. From these first moments Mary already knows the pain that awaits her. And when her hour comes she will contemplate the Passion and Death of her Son with neither reproach nor complaint. Suffering as no mother could ever suffer, Mary will accept her pain in peace of mind, for she knows its redemptive significance. Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto I the Cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, endured with her only-begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consented to the immolation of this victim which was born of her. Mary’s suffering has an especially suitable meaning and is related to the sins of mankind. It is a co­redemptive suffering and that is why the Church gives to the Blessed Virgin the title of Co-redemptrix.

We ourselves learn the value and meaning of the sufferings and troubles which are part of every human life, when we meditate on Mary. With her we learn to sanctify pain, uniting it to that of her Son and offering it to the Father. The Holy Mass is the most suitable moment for offering all that is most painful in our lives. And there we will encounter Our Lady.

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Our Lady teaches us to co-redeem. Offering up pain and contradictions. Atonement. Apostolate with those around us.

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Simeon, by the will of God, initiated Mary, from the beginning, into the profound mystery of the Redemp­tion, and made plain to her that God had singled her out to play a special role in the Passion of her Son. Thus, a new element entered into the life of Mary through the prophecy of old Simeon, and it remained with her until she stood at the foot of the Cross of Jesus. The apostles, despite the teachings and many indica­tions of Our Lord, did not come to understand every­thing until after the Resurrection, namely that it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer much at the hands of the scribes and of the chief priests.

Mary had a premonition from the beginning that great suffering was in store for her and that this suffering was in same way bound up with the redemption of the world. She who kept all these things and pondered on them in her heart, must have often reflected on these mysterious words of Simeon. Through a process which we cannot fully understand, she identified her heart with that of her Son. Her redeeming pain is suggested as much in the prophecy of Simeon as in the account of Our Lord’s Passion. ‘This child,‘ said the old man, indicating the infant in her arms, ‘is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken. against, and a sword will pierce through your heart also … ‘ In fact, when Jesus, who belongs to all of us but especially to you, gave up his spirit, the cruel lance did not reach his soul. If without sparing him it opened his side, since he was already dead it did not cause him pain. But your soul it did pierce. At that moment his soul was not there but yours was, and could not be totally separated from him.