Word of the Week

Easter Sunday

Mass: missa (L.): meaning, “mission”, or “sending forth”.

The Eucharist is the “principle celebration of the Church, established by Jesus at the Last Supper, in which the mystery of our salvation through participation in the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of Christ is renewed and accomplished. The Mass renews the paschal sacrifice of Christ as the sacrifice offered by the Church” (CCC Glossary, 887). Holy Mass is one of the names designated for the celebration of the Eucharist, because in “the Liturgy in which the mystery of salvation is accomplished concludes with the sending forth” (CCC, 1332) of God’s people to be laborers for heaven in the vineyard that is the world.

Scripture reveals that the mission of Christ and the Church, as the Kingdom of God here on earth, bears fruit to the extent that his followers obediently responded to the power of the Holy Spirit entrusted to them to witness in truth and love (cf. Acts 1:8). His sending forth in mission was clear: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt.28:19). As Baptism is the principle Sacrament that brings us into the life of Christ and initiates us into the family of God, it is the Breaking of the Bread that constitutes the proper nourishment for the vocation of mission.

Easter Sunday provides for us an opportunity to look at this more carefully in the Road to Emmaus. Here we read that Christ “took…broke…blessed…gave” (Lk.24:30), and in so doing, those present had their hearts opened to Christ in the “breaking of the bread” (Lk.24:35). Certainly, this Eucharistic formula, which is at the heart of the structure of the Eucharistic prayer, is a call to see how two-thousand years later, are senses are to be made aware of the presence of Christ in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In so doing, we ought to go forth from the celebration of Mass as one who has set our mind on heavenly things and put away earthly things (cf. Col.3:1-4) in the response of faith that is missionary by nature.

This highest season of the liturgical year is to be a reminder our spiritual birthday in Christ. No matter what day we were brought into the Church of Christ by immersion into the water, the Church places the highest priority on understanding this day as the peak of the Liturgical year, and as an opportunity to renew our baptismal vows. So, as we embark upon another season of newness of life, let us never rest at the proposal that Christ’s work is accomplished in the Resurrection. Let us respond in the strength that is the Holy Spirit, to share the gospel unreservedly with every individual that Christ places before us in our walk towards him.

“The third day he rose again. This truth, upon which as upon the "cornerstone" (cf. Eph 2:20) the whole edifice of our faith is based? Today we wish once more to share this faith among us, one with another, as the fullness of the Gospel. We confessors of Christ, we Christians, we the Church. And, at the same time, we wish to share it with all those who are listening to us, with all men and women of good will. We share it joyfully, for how could we not be filled with joy for the victory of Life over Death?”

--John Paul II

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.

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