The words of Jesus in the Last Supper, “Do this in memory of me,” command the continuation of his sacrifice on the Cross –which he was about to offer– in every Mass celebrated anywhere in the world until the end of time. This was announced in the Old Testament by the prophet Malachi: “From the rising of the sun to its setting, my Name is great among the nations, and in every place, there is sacrifice and there is offered to my Name a clean oblation” (Mal 1:11).
Therefore, in obedience to her Founder’s behest, the Church prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by means of the sacred liturgy. She does this, most of all, at the altar, where constantly the sacrifice of the cross is reenacted; that is, is made present. Along with the Church, her divine Founder is present at every liturgical function giving fitting worship to God.
Every impulse of the human heart expresses itself naturally through the senses; and the worship of God, being the concern not merely of individuals but of the whole mankind, must therefore be social as well. Hence, the liturgy always has a social and external dimension.
But the chief element of the liturgy should be interior. For each one of us must always live in Christ and give ourselves to him completely, so that in him, with him, and through him, the heavenly Father may be duly worshiped and glorified. The sacred liturgy requires, however, that its exterior and interior elements be intimately linked with each other.
Thus, it is an error to think that the sacred liturgy of the Mass is only the outward or visible part of the divine worship, or that it is just an ornamental ceremonial with a list of laws and prescriptions according to which the ecclesiastical hierarchy orders the sacred rites to be performed.
God cannot be honored worthily unless the mind and the heart turn to him in quest of the perfect life that unites work and adoration. The liturgy, –the adoration rendered to God by the Church in union with her divine Head– is the most efficacious means of achieving sanctity. It should be the center of our interior life, the center of our day.
St. Josemaría: “I have often helped you consider this marvelous reaction of human love: two people who love one another, when they have to part, exchange some photographs with a dedication so full of affection, so aflame, that it is almost a wonder that the words don't burn the paper. It's the same with Jesus, who loves us to the end: he has to go and, at the same time, he wants to stay. But what we are not able to do, God can do: he goes and he stays. He institutes the Holy Eucharist so that we may eat him, so that we will be strengthened, so that we will be faithful and come to perfect union with him ..."
Illustration: Last Supper, Our Lord and St John.
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