The Mass as an Emmaus experience

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE are familiar with that gospel story about two men on the way to Emmaus (cfr. Lk 24,13-35) They were clearly disturbed about what just happened to Christ who was crucified. Then the risen Christ approached them, incognito at first, and started explaining things to them. It was only when he broke bread with them that they recognized him.

Somehow, this episode reminds us of what can actually happen everytime we hear Mass. It practically provides us with a scriptural blueprint for the Holy Mass that mirrors its two main parts: the Liturgy of the Word, where Christ opens the Scriptures, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where he is recognized in the breaking of the bread.

And just as the encounter of the two disciples with Christ transformed their despair into burning faith, pushing them to a work of mission, the Mass also sends us to “go forth” and reach out to others in a vigorous work of apostolate.

We should therefore take good care of the way we prepare for Mass and the way we participate in it. We should put ourselves with the proper disposition, eager to know more about our Lord by going through the readings and the prayers, and to capture the living presence of Christ who asks us to continue with him the work of human redemption.

We need to exert effort to grow in our love for the Holy Mass. Human as we are, we should not take this concern for granted, since we always have the tendency to get so accustomed to celebrating or attending Mass as to become complacent, like a rock where water would just pass by without absorbing anything.

We have to constantly remind ourselves of what the Holy Mass really is. It is not just a ceremonial, a dramatization of past events in the life of Christ. It is the very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, sacramentally renewed in an unbloody manner on our altars under the appearances of bread and wine.

In short, the Holy Mass is substantially the same as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It has the same Priest and Victim, and the aims and fruits are identical. Only accidental differences distinguish the two.

We attend the Holy Mass to identify ourselves with Christ as our Savior, and to make our own Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We should not be mere spectators in the Holy Mass. We should make that sacrifice our own together with Christ, and we offer it to God in the Blessed Trinity, again together with the merits of Christ’s work of redemption.

Our abiding attitude and disposition in attending the Holy Mass is to seek forgiveness, an increase in God’s grace and ultimately, eternal life. In the Mass, we adore God with Christ’s adoration, we make up for our sins with Christ’s sacrifice, we pray with Christ.

There in the Mass the best expression of our shared life with God is achieved while here on earth. What belong to Christ become ours, and what belong to us also become Christ’s. In the Mass are where all our thoughts, words and deeds assume a supernatural and eternal value. That is why the Mass should be the center and root of our life. Everything in our life should be offered there.

In the Mass, we enjoy a certain “oneness in time” with Christ on the cross. We become contemporaries of his. Time and space are done away with in a mysterious way, so we can be with Christ on the cross. And united and identified with him in the Mass, we become co-redeemers with him for ourselves and for everybody else.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com