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r/Catholicism•
Bounds

A reflection on the real presence and the Sunday obligation. Your input/constructive criticism is welcome.

I was thinking about the Sunday obligation and how, despite my frequent feeling that I get nothing from mass, that the mass isn't about me.

The Eucharist is a representation of Christ's sacrifice. Not in the sense that a portrait is a representation of a person's likeness, but that this past event is, in the sacrament, rejoined to the present moment.

So my thought is that even if I can't receive due to my frequent failings, or hardly focus on the mass due to taking care of kids, maybe me being there somehow comforts Christ during his passion, as if I (and everyone at every mass ever) were present at the foot of the cross, unable to see Christ or assist him in any way, but being with him all the same.

Does that sound legit or is this some Dr. Strange time-portal nonsense?

Posted Jan 7, 2019, 5:33 PM UTC

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cwhiatt•

Fulton Sheen has a good response for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr_57fD6Ado

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SmokyDragonDish•

When you say "representation" you mean "re-presentation", yeah?

As in made present again?

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dayb4august•

“Rejoined in the present moment”, sounds like that very roundabout.

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SmokyDragonDish•

I think OP is trying to express this: https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/the-mass-as-cross-and-re-presentation/5820/

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BoundsOP•

Exactly. Said another way, when we encounter Christ in the Eucharist, is it as if he is still suffering on the cross? Can we think of his passion as being over, as any other historical event, or is it still going on?

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trout007•

The way I think about it (correct me if I’m wrong) is that Christ’s sacrifice is eternal. Since we sin in time we need to “tap in” to that eternal sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.

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