Unfortunately, many things in today’s culture pull us in the opposite direction—to things smaller than ourselves. So much is reduced to the entertaining, the pleasurable, the useful. Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the mundane and small. Such things make up the bulk of daily life and God designed it that way. But we run into problems when that is all we experience, and the only things our lives are focused on.

In contrast, the Catholic Faith is centered on the liturgy, which takes us out of the mundane and into the courts of heaven, into the splendor of the eternal! Every Mass is an encounter through God’s invitation into heavenly worship, through communion with Christ, and through our being sent forth into the world as missionary disciples to help others encounter God as we have.

That invitation begins the moment the liturgy starts, because the entire Mass is an encounter with Christ, who “is always present in His Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations.” We rightly tend to focus on Jesus, present in Holy Communion, but He is also present in the priest, in the Scripture proclaimed, in song, and in the assembled church. The entire liturgy is an encounter with Christ, that only later reaches its summit in Communion.

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we encounter Jesus, who then invites us into His own worship of the Father. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, through Jesus, the Church “offers worship to the eternal Father… in which God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified” (CCC 1089). But what is this worship that’s being offered?

Scripture tells us that St. John the Apostle had a vision of worship in Heaven, and it included the angels, saints, incense, song, and “a Lamb that seemed to have been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Jesus appears in Heaven as a victim because, as the eternal high priest, He offers His once-for-all sacrifice on the Cross to God the Father, perpetually interceding for us (see Romans 8:34).

It is in this very sacrifice of the Mass that the liturgy makes present “sacramentally” on the church’s altar, the crucified and risen Lord, thereby allowing us to participate in the heavenly offering of Christ to the Father! It’s no wonder that more and more young people are being drawn to the liturgy’s otherworldliness—it’s in the Mass that Heaven touches earth, and that the transcendent God becomes immanent. It’s there that the angels and saints join the earthly congregation as Christ draws us into His saving work and Heaven’s liturgy.

So, how do we participate practically? It’s not enough to attend Mass as passive spectators; rather we are invited to offer the Mass in union with the priest. After the readings, as the altar is being prepared, we can (and should) place ourselves on the altar, as well as our particular offerings—our works, joys, sufferings, failures, successes, families—anything and everything can be placed on the altar. Then, when Christ’s perfect sacrifice on Calvary is made present on that same altar, our imperfect offerings are taken up into His sacrifice, and presented to the Father in Jesus’ one perfect act of love.

Think about it this way. If you had been alive at the time of Christ’s crucifixion, and had been granted the immense privilege of standing underneath the Cross with Mother Mary, what would you do there? Just like Our Lady, you would surely unite your heart to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, joining your love to His perfect offering of love to the Father. The astonishing privilege of the Mass is that Christ gives us sacramentally this very opportunity, which none but a handful of disciples received historically.

And while all this talk about Calvary and sacrifice can seem a bit daunting, it is in truth a great joy for Jesus to receive our offerings of love and to have us partake in His perfect worship of the Father, just as it’s a delight for the Father to receive it. No mere creature could ever offer worship worthy of God’s infinite majesty, so Christ graciously includes us in His own perfect worship of the Father—precisely because He knows this is where our true joy and best means of sanctification lie.

Incredibly, God is not satisfied with this. He desires even more of an encounter, and so He comes to us in Holy Communion. Here God’s invitation reaches its climax, as He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

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