In statistical terms, the Catholic Church in North America is in trouble. Surveys show consistently that we lose more adult members than we gain. The reasons have little to do with hot-button political issues, unpopular doctrines, or even Church scandal. The most common reason people give for leaving the Church is their failure to connect to the Church’s worship. Simply put, people don’t know how to get the most out of Mass.
Just what is the connection between this weekly ceremony and my deepest spiritual needs? How can the Mass make me a better husband or father? How can it help me bear up under suffering? Can it make me happy? There are hardly any questions more important that a Catholic can ask. It is not enough to confess faith in the Real Presence. We need to know why Christ is present, how he is present, and how he is to be received by me. In short, we need to understand why the Eucharist is the “Source and Summit” of the Christian life.
It begins with the Gospel. My favorite one sentence summary of the Gospel comes from St. Irenaeus. (A.D. 130-202) Irenaeus said, “What we lost in Adam we regain in Christ.” Whereas Adam fell and brought ruin on our race, Christ, the Godman, lived a perfect human life and became “the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Hebrews 5:9) He is the “Second Adam.” (1 Corinthians 15:45-47) In him, we are “reborn,” and raised up to newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) He offered to God a sacrifice for sins, once for all (Hebrews 10:12) and won for us the gift of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness. (Acts 2:33-38)
This is all Good News, of course, but how can I lay hold of it? How can I make it real in my life? Many of our evangelical brothers emphasize the experience of conversion, of making a conscious decision to follow Christ, and then to nourish that choice in a community of the faithful. This element of personal appropriation helps explain much of evangelicalism’s numerical success, even if Protestant theology falls short of the fullness of Catholic faith.
It may come as a shock that personal relationship with God is also the heart of our theology of the Mass. Pope Pius XII wrote, “The chief element of divine worship must be interior.” It’s not our physical activity, moving about, vocalizing, or gesturing during Mass. It’s our interior act of worship that matters most for our fruitful participation. The Pope continues, “It should be clear to all, then, that God cannot be honored worthily unless the mind and heart turn to Him in quest of the perfect life.” (Mediator Dei) If you don’t have a relationship with Christ, you will not know what do with the Mass.
Our most important “action” in Mass is to unite our hearts and minds with Christ in this Sacrifice of the New Covenant. (Luke 22:20) Here is where things get a bit hazy for most Catholics. Just how is the Eucharist a sacrifice? Didn’t Christ die once-and-for-all on Calvary? There is an idea floating about, more Calvinist than Catholic, that the Holy Spirit simply connects us to that past event in some mysterious way. But that is not the traditional Catholic position.
According to traditional teaching, the Mass is a true sacrifice because the victim is truly present, though hidden in signs representing his death. He does not die again, nor do we travel back to Calvary in some mysterious way. Because the victim is truly present, we can truly offer him to God, but in an unbloody manner. It is the priest who effects the sacrifice, making it present, but the whole Church must offer it. Vatican II explained, “They (the laity) should give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium)
Christ knew what he was doing when he instituted the sacraments. The sacraments teach doctrine, but they do far more. By the Spirit’s power, they force me to interiorize that doctrine and apply it conscientiously to my life. I can’t simply confess Christ’s death in general. I must personally offer Christ to the father in reparation for my sins. I can’t simply confess my sins generally. I must enumerate them specifically and with contrition. I can’t simply believe God forgives generally. I have to hear Christ say in the priest, “I forgive you.” There is no better way to develop a personal relationship with Jesus. For these reasons, Pope Pius II taught, “the worship rendered to God by the Church in union with her divine Head is the most efficacious means of achieving sanctity.”