What's wrong with the Mass?
I will share what is wrong with the Mass...it's us.
Most Catholics are poorly catechized in understanding what the Mass truly is. This was my case growing up. This also is the story of many Catholics within the Church.
We see the Mass as "boring" or "dull" because we don't really know what's going on at the altar. Our faith is lacking....our knowledge may be too. Ignorance is not bliss in this case because we neglect to partake in the heavenly realities which unfold before our eyes and therefore the grace which Christ offers us through the Mass cannot bear fruit as it's meant to in our lives.
So what is the Mass?
The Mass in the Catechism is described in a number of ways, but the following two descriptions best sum up the essence of the Holy Mass:
#1 The Mass is a sacrifice. The Mass is a real participation, through a sacramental veil, in the once-and-for-all sacrifice that Jesus did for us on the Cross. "The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior and includes the Church's offering." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1330). The Church, who is the body of Christ according to Scripture, unites at the Mass with her Head, Jesus, to offer in union with Him and through Him, a sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, supplication, and reparation to the Father.
#2 The Mass is a participation in the heavenly worship: "...by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all." (CCC #1326) We "enter into" heaven!!! It is a fortaste of our heavenly beatitude!
Truly Jesus' Body and Blood
When you go to Mass, after the priest consecrates the bread and wine, it truly becomes the real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. This is an incredible gift that we as Catholics have! It's not a symbol. This is what Protestants believe but this is NOT what we as Catholics believe. At the words of consecration, the saving sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross is made present upon our altars. We don't just do a memory recall; that's maybe what Protestants do if they do celebrate the Last Supper...the re-enactment is similar to thinking back upon a memory.
But as Catholics, that's not what goes on. Calvary is literally, sacramentally (a sacrament confers the actual grace and mystery it signifies), made present to us upon our altars so that Christ can apply His saving merits to us, in time. It is at the Mass that the sacrifice of Christ is applied and perpetuated in time so that we, in time, can participate in its merits! Ah this is amazing!! and it should draw us to our knees in deep thanksgiving every time we are at Mass!!! When you go to Mass, and after the priest consecrates the host to become the true Body and Blood of Jesus, just do a mental picture and imagine Jesus hanging on a Cross upon the altar. It helps.
How is the Mass the Sacrifice of Christ Re-presented?
"In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial (of Calvary) is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them." (CCC #1363)
We must remember that Jesus was a devout and practicing Jew. But what He did was reconfigure the Old Law completely around Himself and fulfilled it within Himself.
Do you remember the precepts God told Moses and the Israelites in the book of Exodus? Basically put:
1) Sacrifice a year-old, unblemished male lamb.
2) dip a branch of hyssop in the blood of the lamb
3) spread the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the home as a sign, and
4) eat the lamb
(see Exodus 12:1-14)
It is important to emphasize here the fourth step: In the Old Testament, the Passover ritual is not completed by the death of the sacrificial lamb. It is completed when the Israelites
eat the “flesh” of the lamb that is slain so that they might be delivered from bondage in Egypt and, ultimately, from death (Ex 12:8). - They had to eat of the flesh of the lamb to be delivered! Moreover, once the sacrifice is completed, God commands that the Passover be celebrated every year in the spring as a memorial of the deliverance won for the people of God (Exodus 12:14). So every year the Jews celebrated this in their Passover liturgy. Jewish tradition saw the Passover sacrifice and the Passover meal as making them spiritual participants in the first Passover night, no matter how many centuries had passed since the original Exodus. God’s original act of deliverance was somehow made present through the
Passover liturgy.
So with Sacred Scripture and the Jewish Tradition it was lived out in, in mind, we can see clearly how it is that the first Christians — who were Jewish Christians — understood the Last Supper and the Christian Eucharist. Above all, they recognized that the Eucharist was the new Passover, in which Jesus had replaced the flesh and blood of the old Passover lamb with his own flesh and blood. Like the old Passover, which is celebrated as “a memorial feast” (Ex 12:14), Jesus says to his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24). Christians of every century participate in this one new Passover, which is made present at
every single Mass. As the Catechism teaches, “When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered
once for all on the cross remains ever present” (CCC, no. 1364). That is why St. Paul, himself an expert in Jewish Scripture, can write, “Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast” (1 Cor 5:7-8). (Taken from the "Jewish Roots of the Eucharist" by Dr. Brant Pitre)
I'd also like to add that in Jewish Tradition, after that first Passover, every Jew had to eat of the sacrificed lamb as a visible sign of their participation in being a part of God's chosen people, freed from Egypt. Hmmmm....interesting how Jesus in John 6 told us that we "must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have life within us." Mind you, Jesus also went out of His way to say this on the feast of the Passover. Well, Jesus is the new Passover Lamb for us. If the Jews didn't do this on that first Passover night (eat of the flesh of the lamb), the first-born male in their family would die because the sacrifice wasn't complete. If Jews didn't eat of the lamb at the following Passover memorials each year, it would be equivalent to renouncing their place among God's chosen people and their participation in His Covenant. Hmm...well Jesus is telling us here if we do not eat His flesh and drink His blood, we "have no life within us"...therefore, we are dead within.
Catholics, by not receiving Holy Communion as the Lord had intended us to "eat His flesh and drink His blood," we "opt out" of our salvation and renounce our pariticpation in the New Covenant which saves us from our sins. We do not have that fullness of life the Lord wishes us to participate in! Non-Catholic Christians are invited to this full Communion by discovering the fullness of this truth found within the Catholic faith. This eating of the Body of Christ is the belief of the early Church and the early Christians and has been passed down through the centuries. This is one reason why attending Mass on Sunday is NOT an option, but necessary for our salvation, or else we may end up in hell if we remain obstinant in not going to Mass and do not go to Confession and amend our ways. This is why the Church has helped us undertand that not attending Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin - a serious sin which cuts the life of grace out of our souls. Not only do we owe God our worship on Sunday as He lays out in His 10 Commandments, and as it's properly due Him, but in understanding it this way, we need to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion as a way of participating in the New Covenant. This is what Jesus desires and it comes right out of His mouth in Sacred Scripture!
Ok, Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me at the Last Supper"...but what ties that with the sacrifice on Calvary?
Ah, Scott Hahn challenges us with this question: "So what makes Jesus' death on the cross a sacrifice, and not just another Roman execution?" In a nutshell, Scott Hahn tells us that Jesus links His Last Supper meal with Calvary to make them one-in-the-same.
In Jewish Tradition, when Jews celebrated the Passover, they drank of 4 cups of wine. The 4th cup of wine that is drunk is part of the Hallel, or thanksgiving praises, they sing, and it is at the end of the liturgical celebration. Well Jesus - who was celebrating the Passover the night before He died - did this within His Jewish tradition. He "disrupted" the "flow" of the Passover by leaving out this 4th cup of wine. Ok, now this would be the equivalent to omitting the final blessing at the end of Mass. Jesus' apostles, who were Jews, certainly would have thought something quite odd. Instead, Jesus and his apostles rose, "singing a hymn, and went out the Mount of Olives" (Matthew 26:30). ...Instead of finishing the Passover meal, he "interrupted" it and began His Passion.
Throughout the Gospels, during Jesus' agony in the garden, He pleads with His Father: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39). He doesn't want to drink this cup - this final cup of suffering - which also signifies the fourth cup that "closes" the Passover meal. There's a reason Jesus is referring to His Passion and crucifixion as a "cup" He must drink. He is linking it to the Last Supper passover meal. He doesn't drink of the wine of the cup again until He is hanging on the Cross. When he does drink it, He dies. "It is finished," he says. The Passover meal is closed and the old Passover is now completely reconfigured around Christ and He is our new Passover.
Also, at the Last Supper, Jesus tells us after blessing bread and breaking it, "Take and eat; this is my body" (Matthew 26:26). Jesus took the cup, gave thanks, and said, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is the blood of the New Covenant which will be shed on behalf of many...do this in memory of me" (Matthew 26:27-28). So, the night before Jesus dies, He tells us to eat of His body and drink of his blood which will be shed... And where did He shed His blood and give up His body? On the Cross! Thus, Jesus links the Last Supper to his sacrifice on Calvary, making it one-in-the-same.
Well at the Mass, we eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Lord 1) just as He commanded and 2) as a visible sign of our participation in the New Covenant - expressed at Christ's sacrfice on the Cross, which merits for us eternal life in heaven and saves us from our sins! It signifies we are in communion with God.
When you receive Holy Communion, it signifies you are in communion with the rest of the Church, who is the Body of Christ, and therefore Christ, because He is the head of His Body, the Church...thus making us all one. ...Unfortunately there are Catholics who reject some of the Church's teaching, or "pick and choose" what they want to follow, and are therefore not in communion with Christ and His Body, the Church...but I'll save that for another time to explain more. This is what the Church has taught for the past 2,000+ years.
Well Why is it a Heavenly Worship too?
I'll leave that to Scott Hahn who explains how what we see/say/hear/do at Mass reflects what comes from Sacred Scripture, particularly John's vision of the heavenly worship in Revelation.
Catholic Answers puts it very well: "Through his (Jesus') intercessory ministry in heaven and through the Mass, Jesus continues to offer himself to his Father as a living sacrifice, and he does so in what the Church specifically states is "an unbloody manner"—one that does not involve a new crucifixion, but rather that same crucifixion that happened in time, on Calvary."
The Mass is a participation in the on-going priestly mediation of Jesus in heaven. In the sense of Sacred Scripture, a priest always is a mediator between God and man, and always offers a sacrifice. Christ is our perfect and eternal high priest, as Hebrews tells us in the Bible. He is both priest (the offerer) and victim (the one being offered). Therefore, he is still mediating for us in heaven before His Father, until the end of time when He comes in His glory. If he's still doing that, that means he is still offering something, a sacrifice, to His Father. What sacrifice might that be? That "once and for all" sacrifice He gave on the Cross which saves us from our sins! ...only He's not dieing again and again, but He's making present to His Father (and by us going to Mass, He's also making present to us) that once-and-for-all saving sacrifice. "For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24).
Bottom Line
If we educate ourselves on our Catholic faith, and have a strong prayer life which helps us grow in faith, the Mass will never be "boring" or "dull." It's our faith that is dull! What more of an awe-inspiring thing is there than to be "at the foot of Calvary," remembering the Sacrifice of Jesus?? What's more amazing than participating in the heavenly worship with the angels and saints?? It should fill us with deep contrition for our sins, yet great hope, love and joy in our Lord who loves us deeply enough to die for us and continue to intercede for us in heaven!
It's our ignorance that we need to inform. We shouldn't find a need to add innovations to the Mass, adding more "entertainment-like" music, falt-screen tv's, action, and so on. The Mass isn't a performance; it's not meant to be some form of manipulative, emotional excitement and entertainment. It's a sacrifice offered through, with, in, and by Jesus and in union with all the angels and saints in heaven... unto the heavenly Father. We become one with heaven. It is at the Mass, as all the saints have affirmed, that heaven joins with earth (hence why some went into ecstacy while either celebrating Mass or receiving Holy Communion). We get enough of the world in the world. When we attend Mass, it shouldn't be like the concerts we go to, or filled with worldliness - it should draw us up towards heaven. It should be "other-worldly"....because, well, it is!
If you've been away from attending Mass, or have skipped it even once, you have a serious need to go to Confession. It's a mortal sin. Do not let that rest upon your soul, you don't know when you will die. The Lord desires you in full communion with Himself and His Church. Return to the Church and be reconciled to Christ, He loves you and beckons you!
Further Reading:
I'd like to recommend you check out Youtube to listen to Dr. Brant Pitre's talks on the "Jewish Roots of the Eucharist." He has also written a book about it.
The book, "The Lamb's Supper," by Dr. Scott Hahn expouds upon the heavenly worship and the sacrifice of Christ made present in the Mass. Scott Hahn also has many talks available to listen to on Youtube..short and lengthier ones.
Finally, Catholic Answers website always had great information if you'd like to learn more about the Mass.
Praise God! May the Holy Spirit enlighten our minds and give us more faith and understanding to this incredible truth of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!