Dear friends,
Last weekend, I was overjoyed to present you with the plans for our hopes and dreams for our future. God has graced us with tremendous growth during the past 20 years; may our collective efforts toward completion of the next two phases continue to bring HIM all the glory.
We take a moment to pray for the protection of our brothers and sisters in hospital ministry – the doctors, nurses, therapists, chaplains, and all who care for those affected by the Covid-19 virus. This time of trial has proven to be exhausting and even hopeless for them at times, unable to save so many of the patients under their care. As we celebrate our first White Mass on September 12th, the 11 a.m. Mass, let us not only thank them for their services but also pray for their safety and wellbeing. May we join with the prophet Isaiah in proclaiming, “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced” (50: 7).
On this 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, mother Church invites us to reflect on the perennial invitation of Christ to follow him by denying ourselves and taking up the cross. This message is contradictory to the way we would like to follow him, so let us pray for the grace of humility to deny ourselves and accept our crosses for the sake of HIM who bore the cross for us.
Let us continue our reflection on the Eucharist found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: ARTICLE 3: THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST
- THE SACRAMENTAL SACRIFICE THANKSGIVING, MEMORIAL, PRESENCE The sacrificial memorial of Christ and of his Body, the Church
1365 Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in the very words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and "This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood" (Lk 22:19-20). In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Mt 26:28).
1366 The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit:
[Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit (Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740; cf. 1 Cor 11:23; Heb 7:24, 27).
1367 The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner. . . this sacrifice is truly propitiatory" (Council of Trent (1562) Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, c. 2: DS 1743; cf. Heb 9:14,27).
1368 The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering.
In the catacombs the Church is often represented as a woman in prayer, arms outstretched in the praying position. Like Christ who stretched out his arms on the cross, through him, with him, and in him, she offers herself and intercedes for all men.
Be Blessed!
With love, Fr. John