Welcome to Lift Up Your Hearts podcast
We are in the ninth week on my series, A Biblical Way to Pray the Mass
This is a series based on the book by Father Timothy Gallagher and this week we are finally
at the consecration. Venerable Bruno says that at the consecration we should think about the sentiment of the
heart of Jesus. Maybe that's the most obvious thing we could be thinking about during the Mass, but Father
Gallagher brings up a story and this is a story told by Fulton Sheen at one of his talks
that he told a story of a woman who was a mom who was making breakfast for her family
and her daughter was sitting at the table and she was noticing that her mom's hands
were scarred up, really scarred up. And she had wanted to ask a question for the longest time and she finally had the courage
to ask it. Mom, how come your hands are so ugly? And the mom says, see when you were just a little baby our house caught fire and when
we realized it I ran up to your bedroom and saw that your blankets had already caught
fire, so I threw them off and I carried you out of the house with a burning house and
that's how I got these scars. And the young daughter says, Mom, I love your scars
And I think that's the sentiment that I'm feeling this week as Venerable Bruno says
that at the consecration, think of the heart of Jesus. That I can say, Jesus, I love your scars because it won for me freedom and salvation
That at the consecration I think of you in the garden after the last supper when you
said, Lord, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done
Brother Timothy Gallagher brings up the most famous lines in some ways of the teachings
of John Paul II on his love and responsibility. The main through line for that whole thing is man cannot fully find himself unless he
makes a full gift of himself. He finally becomes himself, he cannot find himself unless he makes a full gift of himself
The gift. The gift is my whole body. The gift for that mother is the salvation, the saving of her daughter's life
And she offered her whole life for it. She offered her hands, the scars and her whole life
Jesus offered his whole life for me. And to think of, for this reason, I really do think of Jesus in the garden after the
last supper. The agony in the garden we call it. Jesus is sweating blood and he was in true agony
Agony for, I just feel like it was for me. Agony for me
Agony that is hard, that he truly suffered. He truly, man, it's not a choice
Love is a choice. It wasn't just butterflies, Jesus is happening. Oh, I love humanity, I'm going to come and suffer and die
He was, he's God, however, he still felt all the suffering. He did not allow for the suffering to go unfelt
He could have, but he didn't. And so St. Paul says as well, we don't have a God, we don't have a high priest that hasn't
gone through this suffering before us. We don't have a high priest that doesn't know our agony, that doesn't know our loneliness
that doesn't know all of it, except for our sin. He knows all the consequences of our sin
He feels them better than I do, probably. Not probably. He knows them better than I do
He knows the suffering. He knows the pain. He knows the ridicule from his own people
And he still does it. So at the consecration, Father Gallagher says, let's just take a moment and just place ourselves
in Jesus' shoes. I know it's impossible. But to just pray the words of the consecration, and pray them, I don't know, just pray them
with the agony that Jesus knew he was going to go through
And that he offered his life for us. For me. For you
For every single person who's listening to this, or watching this right now
He offered his life for you. And he didn't hide from the agony of it
He didn't put on his God suit and become immune to the pain and the suffering and everything else
The agony and the loneliness. He didn't. So we go through the words of consecration here
I'm going to say them slowly. I encourage you to listen to it, rewind it multiple times
Just listen to the words. Let them wash over you. And then when we go to Mass, think of the same thing
Jesus saying them to his disciples. And then the agony and the suffering and the death
For you. For me. On the day before he was to suffer, he took bread in his holy and venerable hands
And with eyes raised to heaven, to you, O God, his almighty Father
Giving you thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples saying
take this, all of you, and eat of it. For this is my body, which will be given up for you
In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took this precious chalice in his holy and
venerable hands. And once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples
saying take this, all of you, and drink from it. For this is the chalice of my blood
The blood of the new and eternal covenant. Which will be poured out for you and for many
For the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me
I think this is my prayer this week that we all just listen to that a couple times
We go to Mass and we think of Jesus at the Last Supper saying those words
Knowing full well what he was to suffer the next day. That it was not, he was not going to hide from it
He was not going to make himself immune or numb or anything else
He was going to feel it all. And he was going to offer it for me, for you
Every single one of you listening. I wish I could say your name, all of you
Because I want you to hear it in a personal way. I want you to hear that Jesus did it for you
And insert your name. Because I want you to feel it personally
That Jesus gave his life for you. Every single person listening and watching, your name inserted
Jesus loves you, gave his life for you. And a biblical way to pray the Mass is to think about that
Just the reality of it. Let it wash over us. I certainly feel, I feel understood in my suffering, in my pain
There's one time where I was in a very deep difficulty. And I was getting chemo
And it was, it was deep in the process of having chemo
It was months and months in. And I don't know if any of you are familiar with getting chemo
But it feels like being seasick for just forever it seems like
Just constantly nauseous and wiped out and worthless and alone. No one else can suffer it with you either
They can be there with you, but no one else can feel the pain
No one else can feel it for you. And I just remember being angry
So angry. I wanted to take my elbow and slam it through the car window
I was so angry. And we were driving home and I looked up and I just saw a billboard
I've never seen it before, but it said, Jesus knows. And instantly the anger was gone
Because I just, although no one could go through that treatment and that suffering
with me, I know that Jesus did. And he knew it. And he understood it
And he could feel it with me. And he knew the difficulty I was going through
He knew how miserable it was. He knew. That's all I needed at that time
I just needed someone to understand what I was going through. And he did
He knew. And it's been a really powerful thing for me. That at my worst, Jesus knows what that can be like
And he can be there with me. Because he didn't hide himself from the suffering
He didn't hide himself or make himself immune or numb or anything else
He felt it. He fell carrying the cross. He died. He really died out of agony and suffering
And he didn't hide it from it for my sake and for yours
I hope you can feel him or hear him say it to you today
I love you. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. I will see you next week
God bless