Wednesday, November 22, 2017

General Audience about the Pascal mystery

This morning's General Audience began at 9:25am in Saint Peter's Square where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.

In his speech, the Pope continued the new cycle of catechesis on the Holy Mass, focusing today on the theme: The Mass is the memorial of the Pascal Mystery of Christ.

After having summarized his teaching in various languages, the Holy Father offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.

The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.


Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Continuing with the Catecheses on the Mass, we can ask ourselves: what is essential to the Mass?  The Mass is the memorial of the Pascal Mystery of Christ.  It makes us all participants in his victory over sin and death, and gives full significance to our lives.

For this reason, in order to understand the value of the Mass, we must first understand the biblical significance of the word memorial.  It is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1363).  By his passion, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, Jesus Christ has brought the Passover to completion.  And the Mass is the memorial of his Passover, of the exodus that he has accomplished for us, to bring us out of slavery and to bring us to the promised land of eternal life.  The Mass is not only a memory, no, it is more: it is the act of making present that which took place twenty centuries ago.

The Eucharist always leads us to the summit of God’s action of salvation: the Lord Jesus, making Himself broken bread for us, sheds upon us all His mercy and His love, as He did on the cross, so as to renew our heart, our existence and our way of relating to Him and to our brothers and sisters. Vatican Council II states: Every time that the sacrifice of the cross — with which Christ, our Paschal Lamb, was immolated –, is celebrated on the altar, the work of our Redemption is effected (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 3).

Every celebration of the Eucharist is a ray of that sun without a sunset, which is Jesus Risen. To take part in the Mass, in particular on Sunday, means to enter into the victory of the Risen One, to be illumined by His light, warmed by His warmth. Through the Eucharistic Celebration, the Holy Spirit makes us participants in the divine life, which is able to transfigure our whole mortal existence. And in His passage from death to life, from time to eternity, the Lord Jesus draws us with Him to celebrate Easter. Easter is celebrated in the Mass. At Mass, we are with Jesus, dead and risen, and He draws us forward, to eternal life. In the Mass, we are united to Him. Rather, Christ lives in us and we live in Him. I have been crucified with Christ — says Saint Paul –, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:19-20). Paul thought thus.

In fact, His Blood frees us from death and from the fear of death. It liberates us not only from the dominion of physical death but of spiritual death, which is the evil, the sin that takes hold of us every time that we fall victim to our sin or to that of others. And then our life is polluted, it loses its beauty, it loses meaning, it withers.

Instead, Christ gives life back to us; Christ is the fullness of life, and when He confronted death He annihilated it forever: Rising He destroyed death and renewed life, (Eucharistic Prayer IV). Christ’s Passover is the definitive victory over death because He transformed His death into a supreme act of love. He died for love! And in the Eucharist, He wishes to communicate to us His paschal, victorious love. If we receive it with faith, we can also truly love God and our neighbour, we can love as He loved us, even to the point of giving His life.

If the love of Christ is in me, I can give myself fully to others, in the interior certainty that even if the other were to wound me, I would not die; otherwise, I would have to defend myself. The Martyrs, in fact, gave their life for this certainty of Christ’s victory over death. Only if we experience this power of Christ, the power of His love, are we truly free to give ourselves without fear. This is the reality of the Mass: to enter into the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus; when we go to Mass it’s as if we went to Calvary, the same thing. But think: if we in the moment of Mass go to Calvary – let us think imaginatively – and we know that that man there is Jesus, do we then permit ourselves to chat, to take photographs, to engage somewhat in a show? No! Because it’s Jesus! We will certainly be in silence, in mourning and also in the joy of being saved. When we enter the church to celebrate Mass we should think this: I am entering into Calvary, where Jesus gives His life for me. And thus the show disappears, chats disappear, comments and the things that remove us from this most beautiful thing that is the Mass disappear, it’s the triumph of Jesus.

I think that now it’s clearer how Passover is rendered present and operative every time we celebrate Mass, namely, the meaning of the memorial. Participation in the Eucharist makes us enter into Christ’s Paschal Mystery, making us pass with Him from death to life, namely, there in Calvary. The Mass is the re-living of Calvary, it’s not a show.



The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.  To English-speaking visitors, he said:

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from England, the Netherlands, Poland, Australia, China, Indonesia, Singapore and the United States of America. I offer a particular greeting to the Marist and Marianist Brothers taking part in a programme of spiritual renewal, and to the members of the priestly fraternity Companions of Christ. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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