Calvary and the Mass: Two Summits of Grace

CALVARY AND THE MASS

Fulton J. Sheen will present a collection of his writings that will encourage the reader to better understand the transformative power of the Eucharist and the beauty of the Mass.

We were there then during that Crucifixion. The drama was already completed as far as the vision of Christ was concerned, but it had not yet been unfolded to all men and all places and all times. If a motion picture reel, for example, were conscious of itself, it would know the drama from beginning to end, but the spectators in the theatre would not know it until they had seen it unrolled upon the screen. In like manner, our Lord on the Cross saw His eternal mind, the whole drama of history, the story of each individual soul and how later on it would react to His Crucifixion; but though He saw all, we could not know how we would react to the Cross until we were unrolled upon the screen of time. We were not conscious of being present there on Calvary that day, but He was conscious of our presence. Today we know the role we played in the theatre of Calvary, by the way, we live and act now in the theatre of the twentieth century.

That is why Calvary is actual; why the Cross is the Crisis; why in a certain sense the scars are still open; why Pain still stands deified, and why blood like falling stars is still dropping upon our souls. There is no escaping the Cross, not even by denying it as the Pharisees did; not even by selling Christ as Judas did; not even by crucifying Him as the executioners did. We all see it, either to embrace it in salvation or to fly from it into misery.

But how is it made visible? Where shall we find Calvary perpetuated? We shall find Calvary renewed, re-enacted, re-presented, as we have seen, in the Mass. Calvary is one with the Mass, and the Mass is one with Calvary, for in both there is the same Priest and Victim.

The Seven Last Words are like the seven parts of the Mass. And just as there are seven notes in music admitting an infinite variety of harmonies and combinations, so too on the Cross there are seven divine notes, which the dying Christ rang down the centuries, all of which combine to form the beautiful harmony of the world's redemption.

Each word is a part of the Mass.

THE CONFITEOR

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

THE OFFERTORY

Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.

THE SANCTUS

Woman, behold thy son.

THE CONSECRATION

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

THE COMMUNION

I thirst.

THE ITE, MISSA EST

It is consummated.

THE LAST GOSPEL

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.