Do we really know why we come to Mass, or just think we know? Are we like the disciples in the road to Emmaus, that thought that they really knew what happened on the first Good Friday? Our Lord Jesus Christ had to explain to them why those events had to happen when he opened their eyes to what the scriptures said about Him.
He may have started with how Abraham brought his son up to mount Moriah, having Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice on his back (Genesis 22:6), the same way as Jesus Christ carried the wooden cross on His back for the sacrifice of the Son of God (John 19:16-17).
How the ram that was finally sacrificed by Abraham instead of his only beloved son had its head entrapped in thorns (Genesis 22:13), as our Lord’s head was also surrounded by a crown of thorns in the way to Calvary.
How in the time right before Exodus, God tells Moses how His people can save themselves from the last plague and be free from slavery: to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, and to mark their doors with the blood of the lamb, and to eat its flesh. How He as a sinless man, saves and frees us from the slavery of sin through His blood and His flesh.
How on what we currently know as Palm Sunday, but in Jesus times would be the day when the sacrificial lambs for Passover would be brought into the city, Jesus the Sacrificial Lamb of God also entered Jerusalem on the same day.
Then He may have asked them what happened on that Friday on Mount Calvary, were they may have thought it was an execution, but it was really the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, were Jesus Christ as High Priest offers the sacrifice of His life in the altar of His body. How that by His passion, death and resurrection; our Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, bridged the unbridgeable gap created by sin between God and humanity.
Do we come to mass then because Jesus is present in the Mass? is the point of the mass the Incarnation of Jesus Christ? The Incarnation makes the point of the Mass possible, but it is not the point of the Mass.
When the priest holds the Body and Blood of Christ in his hands and says: “Thru Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, forever and ever” (Eucharistic Prayer I), that is the moment when Jesus in the cross says “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit” (Luke 23:45) were with His last ounce of breath He offers His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to God the Father.
Let’s recognize our Lord in the transubstantiated species, and that we come to Mass to commemorate this passion, death and resurrection, from which the salvation of humanity was brought to us, that we are saved from the death of sin by the blood and flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Schmidt, Michael “The Greatest Love Story” 10th National Eucharistic Congress, 18 July 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana