The Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist 8

What happens, actually, during the Offertory…is it simply a rite; the offering of bread, water, wine, sometimes fruit, lighted candle etc. ? During the Offertory, we, the ‘participating’ congregation, offer ourselves to God AS A SACRIFICE. This needs explaining, we have to throw more light on this statement.

Normally, at this time during Mass, representatives of the congregation take up the offering of the bread, the wine and the water cruets…..But, this is the beauty of the Mass, those offerings represent the Celebrant himself, they represent me, you, each and everyone ‘participating’ at Mass. Because we are offering ourselves as a sacrifice to God. By right, I, you, each and every one should be on the altar of sacrifice, but as we can imagine that is physically, logistically impossible ….imagine thousands participating in the Mass at St.Peter’s, the Vatican, or anywhere for that matter.

Because I am offering myself as a sacrifice I have to be on the altar. So Our Lord, Jesus Christ…. He must have been a marvellous man…. thought out of a way how to go about it, He Himself chose two important ‘symbols’ that is, bread and wine. But what’s so special about these two elements?                       Because, bread…and you have to go back in time during the days of Jesus, over 2,000 tears back, in Palestine, as elsewhere. Bread was the staple food of the people. Bread gives ‘sustenance’  and wine is the ‘marrow’ of the earth, it gives, or changes to blood, and blood (especially for the orientals) meant life, as it is today, after all.

Therefore when we offer that which nourishes us, that which helps us to live and grow, we will be offering ourselves, ou life. Another beautiful observation is that the grain of wheat had to be crushed, become powder, flour, and the grapes had to be squeezed to produce, to give juice, life was squeezed out of the grape to live under a different, changed form that is wine. And this is exactly what is going to happen to us when when we ‘participate to the full’ in the Sacrifice of the Mass; we are going to be changed, radically. I am going to remain Tony, with all the exterior features, BUT the real, the true substance, value, just as God had planned me to be in His blue-print, since eternity….aided with His grace and with the infinite merits of His Passion, Death and Resurrection….I, Tony, will be a new creation, a new person. This is the great, immense value of the Sacrifice of the Mass, whenever we participate to the full. … /9