Scott Hahn - Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass

Our Holy Father has on many occasions distinguished human persons from the rest of God's marvelous creation by our capacity for wonder. It is this wonder that ultimately leads human reason to faith in Jesus Christ. This wonder is most activated in our humanity when we receive the gift of the Lord HimselfHis Body, His Bloodunder the signs of bread and wine at the Eucharistic sacrifice and celebration. It is quite predictable that our Holy Father would focus on amazement as the appropriate response of the believer to Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

A culture of death is frequently a culture of cynicism, where belief in miracles is considered unsophisticated and unworthy of contemporary enlightened people. And yet the Eucharistic miracle is the greatest miracle of all. If we exercise our capacity for wonder and therein discover the depths of our own humanity, we really find fulfillment, then, in amazement at the truth of Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

In speaking, especially with young people, about this amazement, which our Holy Father describes in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, I have invited and exhorted them to reclaim the WOW of our faith. That Christ would be completely present to us through the sacramental signs transcends our highest hopes for intervention by God in daily human life. In comparison to this Eucharistic presence and reality, all other miracles pale. If we arrive for the Eucharistic sacrifice and celebration, bringing along with us this WOW in the depth of our hearts, there will be no such thing as a Eucharistic Liturgy that is not meaningful, no matter what human failings or flaws might accompany it. The Mass celebrated according to the mind of the Church, even when there are distractions or imperfections as the rite is carried out, still energizes and realizes the WOW in the heart of the believer.

How does one nourish this WOW outside the celebration of Mass so as to bring it to the Mass polished up and at its very best? In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Holy Father strongly invites us to the practice of Eucharistic adoration outside of Mass, before Christ's presence in the tabernacle. Deacon Owen Cummings, Professor of Liturgical Theology at Mount Angel Seminary in Portland, Oregon, has spoken of Eucharistic adoration before the tabernacle as the Mass in meditation. It is the prolongation of the sacrificial banquet, which takes place at the altar. The Eucharistic presence in the tabernacle comes from the altar and sustains our WOW, so that we might return to the altar truly prepared to offer with Christ, the only High Priest, the one eternal sacrifice of praise.

This third volume of the Catholic for a Reason series will provide for the reader much food for prayerful reflection, much of which will, I hope, take place before the tabernacle. The content of this volume will surely nourish the WOW, which should abide in the heart of every disciple of Christ, so that our amazement in the face of the Eucharistic mystery, as well as our human capacity for wonder, might be stirred. After all, to be human is to be like Christto find our redeemed self, our best face, as we look into His face, the face of Him who encourages us when we are sad and strengthens us when we are joyful. As the Second Vatican Council has taught us, the Eucharist is the source and the summit of our life as followers of Christ. We should, then, examine our conscience about our capacity for the WOW, for amazement and wonder, and do everything to nurture those wonderful gifts of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass will serve to enliven these marvelous gifts so that, through the Eucharist, we might become more truly humanthat is more truly holy, more truly like Christ.

THE MOST REVEREND ROBERT C. MORLINO
Bishop of Madison