The power of the Mass

Padre Pio began his day around 2.00 a.m. in anticipation of his Mass which he offered each morning at 5.00 a.m. Huge crowds came to attend his Mass and many waited overnight and into the early morning in order to gain entry to the little ‘Chiesa Antica’ the original church in the friary of Our Lady of Graces in San Giovanni Rotondo. When the newer church was built in the early 1960’s, Padre Pio was reported to have said that it won’t be big enough – he knew the numbers of pilgrims would grow.

The centre of the day for Padre Pio was Holy Mass. Here he was intimately united with Jesus at the last supper and on the cross. The Mass is primarily a sacrifice where Jesus offers himself up to the God the Father on our behalf, the only fitting offering to God.

During the Mass, when the prayer of consecration is said by the priest, the bread ceases to be bread and the wine ceases to be wine. The bread and wine change and become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. At the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread and said the blessing and gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body.” At the end of the meal, in the same way, he took a cup filled with wine and he said, “This is my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” So, whenever we go to Mass, we have Jesus truly and really present in our midst, alive in his Holy Word and in his Holy Body and Blood.

Padre Pio personified the suffering of Jesus by carrying the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ crucified on his hands, feet, and side. He truly entered into the life of the suffering Jesus and therefore understood the sufferings of all the people that asked him for prayers. The most powerful and profound way Padre Pio prayed for people was by bringing them, living and dead, on to the altar at Mass and therefore remembering them in Mass. We can do nothing more powerful in offering up a prayer for someone then remembering them at Holy Mass. St Monica said, “All I ask is that wherever you may be, you will remember me at Holy Communion, and at the foot of the Altar.”  Padre Pio also once said of Mass; “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

Go to Mass and if you haven’t gone for a while, begin again. We need the sacramental energy and sanctifying grace of Holy Communion. We need to be nourished. Like you need to charge your phone regularly, or top up your credit, or charge your electric car, you need to plug in to the Lord and the best way for strength in this world, and to be sanctified in the next world is by going to Mass.

 

Christ be our Light

I wrote books trying to find positivity out there; “Tired of all the Bad News” and Sending Positive Vibes.” I hope I live in the real world enough to realise that of course life is not all sunshine and happiness. For many, life can be a nightmare day and night and their only consolation is the help of good people. Let us not forget that there are good people in our families and our communities.

Taking into consideration the positives which we have got to believe in, there is a lot of work to do and right now, the world is enduring more and more bad news, and we see it on our phones and tablets minute by minute.

We live our lives now via the various social media platforms hypnotised by scrolling and bouncing from one social media platform to the other. The content, live and in colour, is how we spent our day or night, holiday destinations, travel, what we’ve had for breakfast, or lunch, or brunch, or dinner, or what kind of coffee, or spice box, or alcoholic beverage. Our families and circles of friends make memories via the pages of social media, and we don’t have to wait for the photo to develop in the chemist or for the wedding album to arrive in the post or mail anymore. Today, photos of the happy couple, married in Clare or Donegal, can be seen in Sydney in seconds. In fact, you don’t have to even go to the wedding or dress-up, the ceremony can be live streamed. And does anyone wear their ‘Sunday best’ anymore? Sunday is just another day for work, and commerce, and business now.

Is it just me or is there an increase in anger and aggression? Social media can also be a place where there is a deficit of kindness. St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1Cor 13:6) gives us a timely reminder that “love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth…” At a time where some people like to highlight kindness and “Be Kind” they need to learn that receiving kindness also means giving it. Social media is dripping with people rejoicing in seeing other people’s mistakes and the more public the better. “Tabloid Journalism” was wall-to-wall from the 60’s to the 90’s and the quest for the money shot came to a head when Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in the tunnel in Paris in 1997 following a high-speed chase involving moped-riding paparazzi looking for another photo. If it was wall to wall then, it is viral today on our phones, and tablets thanks to power of Wi-Fi and 5G. Many love to see people fall on their backsides so-to-speak all over the pages of our social media and the more well-known the better.

As priests - some of us have been accused of 'guaranteeing heaven' to all who have died. Funeral Masses can be more and more celebratory, and we seem to play down the sincere prayer for God to have mercy on the soul of the one who has died. We say, “forever in our hearts” and “we will remember” and as the time passes perhaps, we visit the graveside of our loved one less-and-less. As I heard a priest say not too long ago, eventually we all die, what happens then? Who will remember our loved ones then unless its someone who doesn’t die – Jesus.

With the preaching of mercy and forgiveness, some priests have been accused of losing sight of the tension in human nature that sin brings and the need of reconciliation with God. People need to say they are sorry, and from our earliest years we are taught the difference between right and wrong, and we are taught not to be bold. We are called to be confident in God’s forgiveness because (a) Jesus constantly reminded us of it in the gospel but also (b) because an encounter with Jesus pushes us to change our lives for the better. Below is a reminder of the mercy of Jesus and his willingness to reach out to the marginalised.

Matthew 18:22 – Forgive your brother not seven times but seventy-seven times.

John 8:1-11 the woman caught in adultery.

Luke 19:1-10 The story of Zacchaeus

John 4 the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Luke 23:39-43 The repentant thief on the cross

The fight between good and evil is real from the everyday choices we make between putting ‘me’ first instead of putting others first. The happiest people are those who put others first in their lives. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “Virtue preserves youthfulness better than all the pomades of Elizabeth Arden.”

There is more sinister evil out there which we all see today, and it represents selfishness and destruction on a grand scale. This is the work of Satan, the devil and he loves to see war and ultra-violence which results in mass and indiscriminate killing, especially the innocent ones. Pope Francis wrote on X (formerly Twitter) “Let us continue to pray for people who suffer because of war; the martyred Ukrainian people, the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, the Sudanese people, the martyred Rohingya, and many others…” In these and other places where innocent people suffer because of a corrupt regime, or because one side wants to oppress the other with any means at their disposal and no matter what the cost, this is the work of the devil.

The devil loves to see us fail and flounder and he rejoices when we panic. He feeds off all our fears and phobias and continues to tell us that we’re no good, that we are useless and that we are ugly on the inside and on the outside. He is a liar and the “father of lies” and a murderer and thrives in chaos and wishes to keep us apart rather than together. The devil pulls the strings of governments who wish to stand on the necks of the poor and roll into other sovereign countries for their own corrupt ends. The devil wants to take us away from Jesus Christ the Lord of all life.

Only recently, Pope Francis, during the final general audience of the year on Dec 27^th, 2023, said; “One must never dialogue, brothers, and sisters, with the devil. Never! You should never argue. Jesus never dialogued with the devil; He cast him out…” “Be careful, the devil is a seducer. Never dialogue with him, because he is smarter than all of us and he will make us pay for it. When temptation comes, never dialogue. Close the door, close the window, close your heart…”

Let us tune into Christ in this new year. Let us give prime time to ways to draw close to Jesus who was born into the human story in Bethlehem which bears massive scars today because of war and violence. Let us turn again to Jesus Christ, the only One to divide time from BC to AD and can help us build bridges of unity and peace. Let us see what we have in common. Let us be kind. Let us lift each other up and put each other first. Let us dry the tears of all who weep. Let us invite Christ, the light of the world to bring light to the darkness of war and hopelessness.