WITHOUT THE SUBSTANTIAL AND REAL PRESENCE THE MASS HAS NOT MEANING.

In a past blog we looked at the prophecy of Malachi that there would be a pure sacrifice among gentile nations and how that prophecy has been fulfilled from the rising of the sun until its setting by Masses being offered up in every part of the world.  We noted how St Paul in Hebrews brought the offering of bread and wine by Melchizedek though not a Jew as proof that though Jesus was not of the tribe of Aaron he could in similar fashion be recognised by the people as a High Priest.   But why were sacrifices offered.   Was it to please God so that battles could be won, Israel coulee become powerful, or was it just a meaningless tradition.   At the very end of Machabees 2 and the last words of the Old Testament we find that Judas Machabees after a great battle gathered all the dead soldiers and  gave them burial.  He then sent offerings to Jerusalem so that their souls could be saved for as the writer said if there was not resurrection such a thing would have been foolish, nevertheless since there was "It is a holy and wholesome thing to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins"   The Sacrifices of the Jews were for the forgiveness of  sin and the sacrifice of the pure victim among the nations was for the forgiveness of sin.   "Behold the Lamb of God" cried John the Baptistl when he looked up from his baptising of people in the Jordan and saw Jesus, "Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world" He recognised Jesus as the spotless offering of Malachi   "I baptise with water butHe will baptise you with the Holy Spirit"   All these prophecies Jesus fulfilled on the Cross.

The enormous task that Jesus had was getting people to believe this.that he was to be the pure victim and people would eat of his body.   In John 6 we have Jesus telling his disciples and the crowd that they must eat his flesh and blood.   It was quite a task.  He could not talk about substantial presence, or describe in any other way what was in the end a mystery.  He did say he was talking about matters that did not concern the body but concerned the soul, a food for the soul within the body.    But many of his  his disciples left him   After a Sacrifice the Jews would eat the animal the was sacrificed as their part in the sacrifice.   That is what Jesus was preparing them for but it was a tough task.   Then at the Last Supper there was some clarification.   He went round the room and gave bread to the disciples saying "This is my Body which will be offered for you" and bringing the wine said "This is my Blood which will be shed for you"   Shortly afterwards he did indeed become the Lamb that was sacrificed.   St Paul was soon to write "When we eat this bread and drink this cup are we not in communion with the Body and Blood of Christ"  In other words his Sacrifice.    And so the whole thing came together.   An in the form of Melchizedek, the prophecy of Malachi, and the actions of Judas Machabees the Old Testament was fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus Christ.   But there was so mcch more.   When at the altar the priest mingles water and wine he says a 'silent prayer'  which I think should be shouted from the rooftops . "By the mingling of this water and wine may we become partakers of the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.   It is not through the cannabalistic act of eating raw flesh that Christ gives himself to us but through the Bread and Wine.   God is Lord of time and from the Cross he reached out to every age and every age was present when he offered himself on Calvary. On the altar  Christ is truly present body, blood, soul and divinity.  If he were not then Mass would have little meaning except some kind of nostalgia.   But no, it is something that is awesome and beyond our imagination - a real Mystery.