We were not present at the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, or the Resurrection, but we are nonetheless invited to be there. God is outside of time, and at Holy Mass we enter into His once-forall sacrifice. We do not repeat it; rather, we participate in the Paschal Mystery. We are there.
During Mass, we are in the upper room at the Last Supper; we are at Calvary, the focal point of salvation history; we are peering into the empty tomb; and we are walking unknowingly with the hidden Jesus and the disciples on their way to Emmaus.
Jesus said, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), and yet we know that He ascended to the Father, so how can this be? At Mass, our Lord is available to us in Holy Communion. We receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, His presence, His “divine DNA.”
The Church teaches: There is no surer pledge or clearer sign of this great hope in the new heavens and new earth “in which righteousness dwells,” than the Eucharist. Every time this mystery is celebrated, “the work of our redemption is carried on” (2 Pet. 3:13) and we “break the one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ.”
Our participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our reception of the Eucharist opens heaven to us and renders Satan impotent.
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