The Bloodless Calvary
The latest in my Friday series during Lent on the Christian meaning of suffering and the Cross.
As I’ve posted the last four Fridays, I’m publishing a weekly series of reflections at Catholic Exchange during Lent. This week I explore how the liturgy takes us more deeply into Christ’s sacrificial love, expressed in his suffering for us on the Cross. I understand many Protestant Christian readers of Human Flourishing may not share my Catholic theology of the Mass, but I offer this in an ecumenical spirit of mutual understanding. Here’s a brief excerpt with a link to the entire article:
There is a reason that every Catholic Church has a visible crucifix on or behind the altar. We gaze upon Jesus hanging on the Cross during the Mass precisely because the Mass makes present to us that very event. It is not just the pristine face of Jesus we kiss when we receive the Holy Eucharist, but His bloodied, beaten, and abused face. When the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, Jesus is offering Himself just as He did at Calvary. In giving us His flesh and blood in Holy Communion, time and again, Jesus demonstrates that—if this were necessary for our salvation—He would be willing to climb back on the Cross to suffer and die all over again for each one of us.
Our Lady was present there on Calvary, witnessing its horrors, and yet she never cursed God, never abandoned her Son. How many of us, with confidence, can say we would do the same? Which of us can say that we would willingly be martyred for love of Him? Or that we would consent to the martyrdom of our children for love of Him, as many of the early Christians did? And yet Our Lord and Our Lady did precisely that for us.
Click here to read the rest of the article. The previous articles of the series can be found here.
Thank you for this series. I have been sharing the essays with my fellow RCIA catechists. This short and concise explanation of the Bloodless Sacrifice has profoundly touched my soul, and I will pass i along to the Elect who will be baptized on Easter Vigil.
Such a beautiful article Dr. Kheriaty. Thank you so much. Yes, we don't go to mass to celebrate, we offer ourselves there at the foot of the cross. And, thank heaven our Lord also gave us the sacrament of confession.