This Is the Mass

Bishop Fulton J Sheen had such a gift for putting things so simply and yet so profoundly. Thanks to Spence's Mom, here is quote from Bishop Sheen that reflects the importance of Mass in the life of the believer.

I said last week that I had to fast from Eucharist for a few days due to timing issues on my trip. This describes perfectly why I felt famished afterward. We need Jesus!


There is another life above the life of the body; namely, the
life of the soul. Just as the life of the body is the soul, so,
too, the life of the soul is God.

This Divine life we receive in
Communion. If the sunlight and moisture and the chemicals of
the earth could speak they could say to the plants:
"Unless you eat me you shall not have life in you;" if the
animals and plants and the chemicals of the universe could speak
they would say to man: "Unless you eat me you shall not have
life in you."

So, too, the Son of God says to us that unless we
receive of Him we shall not have Divine life in us. The law of
transformation holds sway, the lower is transformed into the
higher; chemicals into plants, plants into animals, animals into
man and man into God without, however, man ever losing his
personal identity.

Hence the word that is used for Communion
is "to receive" Our Lord, for literally we do receive the Divine
life, more significantly than a babe receive human life as it is
nursed by the mother, for in this latter case, the human is being
nourished by the human, but in Communion the human receives
Divine life from God. But like all words, even this one has some
imperfection for in communion it is not so much we who receive
Christ as Christ who receives us, incorporating us into Himself.

Bishop Fulton Sheen
This Is the Mass