Mass - The Greatest Act of Stewardship
By Mark Roberti

Without question, the Mass – the celebration of the Eucharist – is the great act of stewardship available to man. 

Mass is where heaven and earth intersect.  So why don’t more people go to Sunday Mass?   Why don’t more people at daily Mass?   Why is it we have a shortage of priests and religious?  Why have so many of our faithful become apathetic and indifferent to the concerns of our faith?   Is it all because we simply do not understand the power of the Eucharist to transform us? 

When, through the power of God, the Israelites were freed from the bondage of slavery, they wandered forty years in the desert.  In the physical desert, God sent manna.  Based upon the scriptural description, it probably looked very much like the Host we consume at Mass.   How often do we partake of the spiritual manna, the Eucharist?

“Anamnesis” is a theological concept that means that the power of a saving event is called to mind, and made present again.  It’s a “remembrance,” which in effect comes alive again.  This concept is central to the Catholic understanding of the Bible and our faith.

In Exodus, chapter 12, just before the Exodus from Egypt , the Passover is celebrated. You remember, Moses instructs each Israelite family to put the blood of an unblemished three-year-old lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their homes.  The Angel of Death comes and slays the first born of all who do not do so. Pharaoh, then, lets the Israelites leave Egypt .

God, through Moses, then tells the Israelites, that they should celebrate the Passover ever year, as a “perpetual ordinance.”  What was it about the blood of the lamb that saved Israel ?  And why celebrate the Passover perpetually?  God works outside of time.  The blood of the Unblemished Lamb prefigures, and actually is, the Blood of Jesus Christ – the Lamb of God – slain on the Cross.  The power of the true Passover, the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, works back in time.  It’s Christ’s Blood on the doorpost that the Angel of God feared and dared not come near!

Just as in Jewish theology, where the memory of the Passover is made present again, annually. In Catholic theology (and in fact), the actual saving power of the true Passover, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is made present again in the Eucharist each and every time Mass is celebrated.  The priest lifts up the Host and the Chalice – the precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy are we who are called to His supper!”

Get it?  This grace filled moment, this saving event, is being made present again, sacramentally.  It’s as though you are standing right there… at the foot of the Cross and at the Empty Tomb!  It is a life transforming experience. Ordinary people become disciples.

Be a disciple.  Be a good steward of the graces God is showering upon you. Respond to Christ’s initiative.  Get to Mass more than once a week, daily if you can.  Allow the saving power of Jesus Christ to transform you.