Bible: Jn 6:48-56
Cathechism: Paragraphs (#) 1366, 1394, 1397
For Christians, the word "memorial" does not mean an action of our mind, a mere "calling to mind", or "remembering", but in the case of Christ's sacrificial suffering and death, it means the making present and experiencing, here and now of the spiritual effects of that sacrifice upon us (Catechism #1366). The Last Supper and Calvary are made present to us at one and the same time whenever we participate in Holy Mass or Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
To be more precise, however, what actually happens at the Mass is that the participants are taken out of the dimension of earthly space and time, as we experience it, and are brought into the dimension of time from God's perspective. Theologians call this divine perspective, God's "eternal now." Simply put, it means that God sees and acts through everything that ever happened, is happening, or will be happening, in one and the same instant. In other words, all times and places are present before Him at once. Christ's one Sacrifice, at the Last Supper and on the Cross, is therefore eternally present before God, and its effects can be applied by HIm to any point of time in history-past, present, or future.
As Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy, then, we need to be keenly aware of what all this means when we pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. In the first placce, our prayer becomes a spiritual sacrifice, the fruit of lips that acknowledge Jesus' name and all it stands for. As we pray: "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world," we are not begging God to grant something He might be holding back from us, but offering a sacrifice of praise, we are acknowledging, affirming, acclaiming Him as the Merciful One who has in Christ, once-for-all, granted us all that we need to fulfill His purposes for us. We trust in HIs merciful providence concering every instant and every facet of our lives.
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