Soon it will be Good Friday.  We call this day Good because it is the day when the Son of God took upon Himself the sins of the world. By His death, Our Lord conquered sin, Satan, and eternal death.  The Sacrifice holy of Calvary is so central to the Church that, obedient to the Lord’s command, she “re-presents” it daily on our altars.  The Mass then is a true and proper sacrifice.
    

    In his Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II refers us to the Magisterium of Popes Leo XIII, Pius XII, and Paul VI.  Concerning the Mass, Pius XII teaches us: “The august Sacrifice of the altar is no mere empty commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ.  Rather, it is a true and proper act of sacrifice, whereby the High Priest, by an unbloody sacrifice, offers Himself as a most acceptable Victim to the Eternal Father, as He did upon the cross.  It is one and the same Victim.  It is the same Person Who now offers it by the ministry of His Priests, Who offered Himself then on the Cross of Calvary. The mode of offering only is now different”(Mediator Dei, N. 68).
   

    The Universal Catechism reaffirms this teaching: "The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the Sacrifice of the Cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit.
   

    "(Christ), Our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer Himself to God the Father by His death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption.  But His Priesthood was not to end with His death.  At the Last Supper "on the night He was betrayed," (He wanted) to leave to His beloved spouse, the Church, a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which He accomplished once and for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of sins we daily commit" (N. 1366).
   

    The Sacrifice of Calvary and the Sacrifice of the Mass constitute one single sacrifice. "The Victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself of the Cross; only the manner of offering is different . . . In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered Himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the Cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner" (N. 1367). 
    

    At every Mass, Jesus Christ is both, Priest and Victim.  He is the principal Priest who offers the sacrifice and He is the Victim who is offered up. Priests of the Church offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice, acting in the very Person of Jesus Christ!  Imagine! Sacramental identification with Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest!
   

    Moreover, the Holy Father and the local Bishop are, “associated with every celebration of the Eucharist” (N. 1369).  Yet, not even these profound thoughts exhaust the mystery!  For, we are there on Calvary!  “In the Eucharist the Church is, as it were, at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ” (N .1370).
   

    When the People of God pray: “Holy, Holy, Holy,” the angels and saints gather around the altar.  John, the Beloved Disciple is there, sustained by Our Mother of Sorrows.  Mary Magdalene is there, eternally embracing the feet of Our Crucified Lord. Silently, we kneel beside Magdalene.  We too are being washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb.
   

    My dear friends, the Mass is not a form of entertainment. Rather, it is, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, the Sacrifice of the Cross perpetuated down the ages.  Every Mass, no matter how simple is the celebration, is one with and identical to the Sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross of Calvary.     
   

    On Calvary, Saint Paul tells us: “He, who was without sin, became sin.”  There, nailed to the Cross, we find our sins, yours and mine.  Jesus swallows them up in an infinite ocean of mercy.  There, the Precious Blood of Our Lord inebriates us with His boundless love!
   

    “Lord Jesus, by your cross and resurrection you have redeemed the world. You are the Savior of the World!”