By Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio

You can probably recite every word of the Mass, but do you feel transformed when you walk out the door? 

While we as Catholics know that the Mass is the source and summit of our faith, at times that knowledge can stay in our head and fail to reach our heart.

As we go to Mass every week and hear the same words, in the same building, with the same people, it can be easy to slip into the trap of it becoming routine. 

“Mass on Sunday?” Check. 

You might feel like you’re going through the motions when you go to Mass. You’ve done it so many times that it almost feels robotic. You sit, stand, kneel, and say your responses. 

….But why?

A thought starts slowly creeping into your mind: Am I seeing the whole picture? Many Catholics have a lackluster experience at Mass. They know they should feel more, but at times it can be a fight through the monotony. 

We see fewer people are going to Mass in many places, and many don’t believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. If they are feeling like this, it’s no wonder. They feel stuck. 

In this article, we’ll help you get unstuck. You will begin to see how much more there is to the Mass than what you see on the surface. 

The Mass will start to come alive for you. You will find yourself wanting to come back as often as you can. And perhaps someday soon, you won’t be able to get enough. 

Here’s the plan:

We’re about to hop into a time machine, where you will see how each aspect of the Mass literally transcends the bounds of time. 

At Mass each Sunday, you are no longer in the present. You are transported through time and space to Calvary as a witness to Christ’s death and resurrection.

It’s like Back to the Future but cooler. 

God and Time

As human beings, we are bound by time. We can’t live in any other moment than the present. The past is written in stone, and the future is unreachable. We are confined by the seconds, the minutes, and the hours. 

But God doesn’t have this limitation. 

God is not bound by time. 

He is in the past, the present, and the future, providing help and graces in all places on the time continuum.

The sacrifice that Jesus offered once and for all was a unique act. He was a real man, so it was an act that took place at a particular time and place in the past. But Jesus is also true God, who is outside time and lives in the eternal present. Past and future are always present to him. 

This means that the actions of Christ on Calvary and on Easter Sunday morning are not only human acts taking place in history but also eternal, divine acts that can be made present in all times and places by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is what happens in the Eucharist. The power of the Cross—the atoning sacrifice that forgives, liberates, heals, and reconciles—becomes present and available to us, allowing us to enter this great mystery.

As wonderful as this is, the Cross is incomplete without the Resurrection (see Romans 4:25). The entire paschal mystery, Jesus’ exodus from this world into glory, is a single saving event, and the Eucharist is its memorial. This means that the Resurrection too is made present every time the Eucharist is celebrated. 

When we go to Mass, we are at the foot of the Cross as the Savior gives his life for us. Yet we are also outside the empty tomb with the risen Jesus and the women who encountered him on that wonderful morning. 

The Mass thus becomes the offering of the entire Body of Christ, its Head and members, as we fully enter into the paschal mystery of Christ—his death and resurrection.

The privilege of sharing in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice is symbolized beautifully just before the consecration, when the priest mixes a few drops of water with the wine. The paltry sacrifice of our lives is like the water that is absorbed into the rich sacrifice of Christ’s Blood, symbolized by the wine.

But nothing is small in God’s eyes. From the vantage point of eternity, our seemingly small offerings here in Christ can move mountains. Our entire lives, our struggles and triumphs, become eminently more meaningful in Christ—far more than we could ever imagine!

The Mass is like a time machine that enables us to take part in the singular sacrifice of Christ through time and space. God grabs our hand and transports us through time, giving us a window into his infinite nature. 

Seeing God in the mystery of his vastness, we realize in a beautiful way how small we are. We have a God who daily gives us free front-row seats to our salvation. 

From Ascension Presents