Fr. Nicolas Schwizer
How will the construction for a new society take place? Based on new men. Without the interior change of the human being, there can be no real change in the exterior structures. Man and his behavior is the basis of society; therefore, it is urgent to transform man so that he may have a new spirit, a new mentality, and new attitudes. How can this take place?
There enters grace and the transforming power of the Eucharist. Because, what happens at the Consecration in Mass? The priest, in name of the Lord, converts bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Bread, a natural nourishment, becomes a supernatural nourishment. And what is the meaning of our participation at Mass? The meaning is that at the Offertory, we ourselves – with all we have and are – offer ourselves to the Father along with the bread and wine. The meaning is that we place ourselves as an offering on the paten and in the chalice.
So, what happens then at the moment of the consecration? There God wants to also work in us the same miracle of transformation which takes place with the bread and wine. He wants to divinize us, transform us into Christ, in an increasing way. The goal is to some day be able to say with St. Paul: “I no longer live, it is Christ who lives in me.” What tomorrow’s society needs is man transformed into another Christ. It needs woman transformed into the little Mary since the Virgin is the most faithful reflection of her Son Jesus.
Now, so that the transforming power of the Consecration can be active in us, we need to prolong the Eucharist in our daily life. That process of conversion of the new man must continue throughout the entire week because the new society is built – from Sunday Mass – into the activities of each day.
Therefore, the Eucharist cannot end at the altar. It is made to prolong itself in life – throughout the day and the week – until the next Eucharist. It means that the Mass, according to the last Council, is “The source and pinnacle” of our entire Christian life.
The Christian must be a man who lives in a permanent Eucharist. We should live from Mass to Mass. In this way, this is how Sunday Mass becomes a Mass of life.
“From the altar to the arena,” the first Christians would say, referring to the arena of the circuses where they would be martyred. And our arena is daily life; our entire life, and especially our daily effort to transform ourselves into new men should be a prolongation of the Eucharist.
This mission to convert our entire life into a prolonged Eucharist is expressedly given to us at the sending forth of the Mass. There Christ sends us to transform ourselves into his reflections and witnesses. There He also sends us to transform the world around us.
He wants that through our work, our daily effort becomes a new world, a world which should be more human and that belongs more to God. He wants that, in the transforming power of the Eucharist, we build a new society.
What Christ asks of us when he sends us anew into the world is that everything we do during the week be a contribution to the construction of a renewed society: our work or our studies done well; our married and family love; to forge the new community in our environment; to form ourselves and educate ourselves to become new men. What Christ asks of us at the conclusion of Mass is that we fulfill in our daily environment what we have lived with Him in the Eucharist, becoming the anticipation of a new world and a new society.
Questions for reflection
1. Do I attend Mass as a routine?
2. When I arrive home, do I remember something of the sermon?
3. Am I aware that something should transform me at each Eucharistic celebration?