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.
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
Raise a Minyan!
Religious Practices Keep Truth Alive
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 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.
The Mass versus the Road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection
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!
The Distribution of the Treasure of Christianity
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.
The Mass
Propagation
The Mountain of God
The Catholic Church has one thing going for it that others do not. It has penetrated the fog that envelops the mountain of God (Psalm 24:3). Some only see the fog. Others see no more than the bottom layer or two. The Catholic Church sees all three layers of the mountain of God. The bottom of the mountain is God's love for us. It is the foundation that supports everything else. The middle is the thirty-three year Visit of the Son of God to us at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of the earth called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago during which the apocalypse of God's indestructible love for us took place. We tortured and killed the Son of God; yet, He continued to love us nonetheless. The top of the mountain is the Mass. The Mass transports the apocalypse of God's indestructible love for us from then and there, across space and time, to us here and now. The three layered mountain of God - God's intransigent love for us, the Visit and the Mass - is the prized possession of the Catholic Church. It is the core of Catholicism. It draws many from godlessness to God.
Featured
Far be it for me to get between the Holy Spirit and the Curious
There is a school of thought that thinking is what defines a Catholic. This school of thought requires that to be a Catholic your thinking must be consubstantial with the official thinking of the Catholic Church.
However, it is not thinking that makes a Catholic.
It is seeking that makes a Catholic. We become Catholic feet first. We become Catholic first with our feet and then with our heads. Revelation before regulation. Devotion before doctrine.
A Catholic is someone who seeks God at the Catholic holy places. Like foolish children, Adam and Eve ran away from their home with God in paradise and took us with them into godlessness. Godless is not a nice place. To rescue us from godlessness, God established an escape route, defined it with holy places, made a map of them and entrusted the map to the Church. The Church has the map and knows the way. The Church is leading a new exodus on the escape route through the hostile desert of godlessness from slavery under the yoke of Pharaoh to freedom with God and their holy family in the promised land. The Church is the new Moses. The escape from godlessness to God is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect.
At the holy places, close encounters with the living God take place. No one walks away from a close encounter with the living God unchanged. No one walks away from a close encounter with the living God empty handed.
Bread and wine, when consecrated by a priest, are the throne of the Son of God upon the earth. The throne is found in the palace of the Mass.
The school of thought that thinking defines a Catholic wants us to get our heads straight before they would allow us to seek God at the Catholic holy places. Without our heads being screwed on straight, we are lesser Catholics unworthy to seek God.
The school of thought that seeking defines a Catholic holds the opinion that only the grace of God can get our heads straight. We do not have the power to get our heads straight ourselves. Right thinking is a byproduct of seeking God. We cannot help ourselves. Only God can help us.
You subscribe to one or the other schools of thought. Where do you stand?
For me, I would welcome everybody who has the desire to seek God. I would bar none. The Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls and the curious follow the tug back to its source. Far be it for me to get in the way of the curious and the Holy Spirit! Perhaps some of you are bolder than I.
The Throne and Palace of the Son of God
Where is the Palace of the Lord? Where is His Throne? Someone, please, show me the way.
Bread and wine, when consecrated by a priest, are the throne of the Son of God upon the earth. The throne is found in the palace of the Mass.
The most Holy Eucharist is the throne of the Son of God upon the earth. It is not empty. He sits upon it