The Mass is An Echo of the Original

What is the original? What is the echo? Which is more important?

The Declaration of Independence is the original; A Fourth of July party is the echo. A birth is the original; a birthday party is the echo. George Washington is the original; a painting of George Washington is the echo. Christopher Columbus is the original; a statue of him is the echo. An echo derives its existence from the original sound. The story of forgiveness that took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection is the original; the Mass is the echo.

Which is more impotant? the original or the echo? Is the most Holy Eucharist "the source and summit of the Christian life" (CCC 1324)? Does the position of prominence in the showcase of Christianity belong to the Mass? Or does it belong to the story of forgiveness that took place on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection?

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The Mass
The Mass

The technical, theological jargon of the real presence is only an incidental part of the Mass. The Mass is much bigger than the real presence.

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The Mass is a Victory Party
The Mass is a Victory Party

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalm 100

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Raise a Minyan!
Raise a Minyan!

The greatest mistake that the leadership of the Church is making during this time of pandemic is that they have dispensed with their congregations as insouciantly as they discard used toilet tissue.

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Religious Practices Keep Truth Alive
Religious Practices Keep Truth Alive

Religious practices keep important truths about God alive. When we encounter a religious practice, it is always insightful to try to figure out what truth it is keeping alive. A religious practice not assigned to a truth about God is a fetish - a superstition.

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The Mass is one of the landmarks that God erected to draw our attention to the 1) ultimate revelation about the nature of God, 2) its location and 3) its importance.
The Mass is one of the landmarks that God erected to draw our attention to the 1) ultimate revelation about the nature of God, 2) its location and 3) its importance.

The Mass is one of the landmarks that direct our attention to 1) the ultimate revelation, 2) its location and 3) its importance.

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The Mass is An Echo of the Original
The Mass is An Echo of the Original

The Mass is an echo of the revelation that Jesus released into the Valley of Tears on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. We took from him that which did not belong to us, his life. He gave to us that which we did not deserve, forgiveness. Upon this unjust transaction between creatures and creator, the entire edifice of Christianity rests. The Mass propagates across time and space this paradigm shifting revelation about the nature of God.

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The Mass versus the Road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection
The Mass versus the Road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection

Which is more important? the Mass or the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection? Why?

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Irreparable Damage is Done to Our Understanding of God When we Divorce the Mass from its Foundation
Irreparable Damage is Done to Our Understanding of God When we Divorce the Mass from its Foundation

The intransigence of God’s love for us despite the brutality of the Crucifixion is the good news of great joy. However, it does not propagate itself. God gave us the Mass to serve as the vehicle that propagates the good news of great joy from then and there across space and time to us here and now. Propagation of the good news of great joy is the purpose of the Mass. God did not invent the Mass to propagate his real presence. The real presence is not the good news of great joy. His real presence is incidental to the good news of great joy - necessary but not sufficient. God established the institution of the Mass to remind us through his bloody wounds that our God is the God who forgave us for the evil that we did to him. Wow! What a God is our God!

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The Distribution of the Treasure of Christianity
The Distribution of the Treasure of Christianity

What insight did Jesus give us about God that is the treasure of Christianity? How is the insight distributed across space and time to the children of Adam and Eve?

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Barely Skimming the Surface of God
Barely Skimming the Surface of God

The doctrine of the Real, but faceless, Presence of God is true - absolutely, entirely and positively. However, it is not true enough. It barely skims the surface of God. It hits the atmosphere of our understanding of God and bounces off. It is a tangent. It contributes little to our understanding of God.

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