I always remember one fellow says that he loves to come to church here but
sometimes on the way home he has to ask his wife, he has to ask his wife what the
heck was he talking about. And today that second reading kind of explains the Mass.
Like I had a seminary professor who used to say that for most people the Mass is
still in Latin. Okay because it kind of goes over our head most of the time. So
this is an attempt like Saint Paul in that second reading says that Jesus
Christ was not yes and no. He was never anything but yes. We actually say that
his great yes, his great amen, he offered to the Father on the
cross. And that's actually the Mass. We unite our amen to his amen. Our yes to
his yes. Saint Paul says the amen from us goes through him for the glory of God.
Our amen goes through his amen. Like they say the model of perfect participation
at the Mass is the Blessed Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross.
She offers her amen in union with his amen. In the book of Apocalypse, Saint
John calls Jesus Christ the amen, the faithful witness. That's the title that he
gives him. Because his whole life was one big amen to the will of the Father. One
big faithful witness to the will of God. Maybe a concrete example helps to bring
it down to earth, Fulton Sheen and his autobiography Treasuring Clay tells that
story of a priest in China who had just begun to say Mass when the communists
came in and arrested him. And they made him a prisoner in the house adjoining the
little church. And from a window in that house he could look upon the tabernacle.
And shortly after his imprisonment the communists opened the tabernacle and
And they threw the hosts on the floor and stole the sacred vessels.
The priest decided that he would make adoration to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament as much as he could day and night.
About three o'clock one morning, he saw a child who had been at the morning mass open a window, climb in, come to the sanctuary floor, get down on both knees,
press her tongue to the host, and give herself Holy Communion.
The priest said there were about 30 hosts in that ciborium.
And every single night, she would return at the same time until there was only one host left.
And as she pressed her tongue to receive the body of Christ, a shot rang out.
A communist soldier had seen her, and it proved to be her viaticum.
Well, the point is that Holy Communion enables us to unite our yes to his yes, our amen to his great amen.
And that's what that young girl was able to do.
But for us, too, it enables us to unite the amen of our lives to his perfect amen.
She was...
She was able to offer herself.
And like we said, in the book of Apocalypse, Jesus Christ is the amen.
And in Holy Communion, we feed on his amen.
We feed on his self-giving.
St. Augustine says,
The church, in the sacrifice she offers, learns to offer herself.
The church, in the sacrifice she offers, learns to offer herself.
That girl in China learned to offer herself.
And through the sacrifice, she offered herself.
Through the sacrifice she attended daily, she learned to offer herself.
There's that other story called The Weight of a Mass that tells us, again, what happens at Mass.
This is a true story.
Related by...
Related by an elderly nun who heard it from the lips of the late Reverend Father Stanislaus.
One day, many years ago, in a little town in Luxembourg,
a captain of the Forest Guard was in deep conversation with the butcher
when an elderly woman entered the shop.
And the butcher broke off the conversation to ask the old woman what she wanted.
She had come to beg for a little meat, but she had no money.
The captain was amused at the butcher's...
The butcher was amused at the woman and the butcher.
Only a little meat, but how much are you going to give her, he wondered.
I am sorry I have no money, but I'll hear Mass for you, the woman told the butcher.
Now, both the butcher and the captain were indifferent about religion,
so they at once began to scoff at the old woman's idea.
All right then, said the butcher, you go and hear Mass for me, and when you come back,
I'll give you as much as the Mass is.
All right then, said the butcher, you go and hear Mass for me, and when you come back, I'll give you as much as the Mass is.
All right then, said the butcher, you go and hear Mass for me, and when you come back, I'll give you as much as the Mass is.
The woman left the shop and returned later.
She approached the counter and the butcher said,
all right then, we'll see.
He took a slip of paper and wrote on it,
I heard a Mass for you.
He placed the paper on the scales and a tiny bone on the other side,
but nothing happened.
Next he placed a piece of meat instead of the bone,
but still the paper proved heavier.
Both men were becoming to,
beginning to feel ashamed of their mockery,
but continued their game.
A large piece of meat was placed on the balance,
but still the paper held its own.
The butcher exasperated, examined the scales,
but found them to be correct.
What do you want, my good woman?
Must I give you a whole leg of mutton?
At this he placed the leg of mutton on the balance,
but the paper outweighed the meat.
A larger piece of meat
was put on, but again,
the weight remained on the side of the paper.
This so impressed the butcher that he was converted
and promised to give the woman her daily ration of meat.
As for the captain, he left the shop a changed man
and an ardent lover of daily Mass.
Two of his sons became priests, one a Jesuit,
the other a father of the Sacred Heart.
And Father Stanislaus finished the story by saying,
I am the religious father of the Sacred Heart.
And the captain was my father.
And from that incident, the captain became a daily Mass attendant,
and his children were trained to follow his example.
Later, when his sons became priests,
he advised them to say Mass well every day
and never miss the sacrifice of the Mass
through any fault of their own.
What is the weight of a Mass?
Well, the answer is the weight of a Mass is infinite.
Because it's Christ's Death on the cross.
The weight of the Mass is enough to redeem us
from the sin of Adam to the last sin committed
at the end of the world.
The weight of a Mass is sufficient to open up
the gates of Heaven, to reverse the momentum of Eden.
We can see the weight of the Mass in the lives of the saints like
the martyrdom.
martyrs of Albigensia were once told that unless they desecrated the Blessed Sacrament,
they would be killed.
And their response was, without the Eucharist we are dead.
The history of the early martyrs in the church was that they would be dragged before emperors,
commanded to offer incense to false gods, to trample on the cross.
They remained faithful to Christ, knowing that agonizing deaths would be their punishment.
They were torn limb from limb on the rack, molten lead was poured down their throats,
their eyes were burned out with fiery irons, they were skinned alive, they were roasted
over fires, they were wrapped in pitch and tar, hung up on poles and ignited to light
up the emperor's garden.
They were gored and trampled by wild bulls.
They were devoured by fire.
They were killed.
They were famished lions.
They were pierced with swords and crushed with rocks.
They were drowned, suffocated, and nailed to crosses.
Just like the gentle Jesus they followed.
And through that bread of the Eucharist, through that food from heaven, we say they were able
to unite their amen to the will of the Father, their yes to God's will to his yes.
Without the Eucharist, we are dead.
That was the martyrs of Albigensia.
There's an old doxology in the church that says, Glory be to the Father through the Son
in the Holy Spirit.
We come to Mass to give glory to the Father.
But we give glory to the Father through the Son.
And what unites us to the Son is the Holy Spirit.
It's through him that we offer our yes to God.
But in Holy Communion, like we say, we're empowered.
We're empowered with grace.
live that supernatural life to live our amen in spite of trials and persecutions and difficulties
so as saint paul says it is through his yes that we give glory to the father in uniting our yes to
him