There is a story of a tourist who visited the Louvre Museum in France, home of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and many other great works of art. As the man was leaving, he told a guard, “I must admit, I wasn’t impressed.” The attendant replied, “Sir, the works of art in this museum are no longer on trial, but those who view them are.” In other words, some things are objectively beautiful, and if we can’t see their beauty, it says more about us than about them.

If this is true about great art, it is certainly true about the Mass: Every celebration of the Eucharist has an objective beauty, whether we can perceive it or not.

My family and I will be traveling for summer vacation soon, which will involve going to Mass at other parishes. This often leads to me comparing and contrasting, deciding which Mass experience was the most impressive. Whenever I find myself silently judging one Mass over another, though, I try to remind myself that the Lord is there, even if the externals leave some room for improvement.

To be fair, there are aesthetic qualities of Mass that vary from time to time and from place to place: One priest may preach better than another, one building may inspire worship more than another, one choir may provide better music than another, and one congregation may be more welcoming than another. When these things can be improved, they should be. Each parish has a responsibility to ensure the quality of these external elements of the Mass, according to the rubrics set forth by the Church.

At every Catholic Mass, though, something truly breathtaking is taking place that transcends our senses. Jesus Christ, his saving sacrifice, and his heavenly worship are all made present under sacramental signs in each celebration of the Eucharist. Catholics who believe what the Church teaches ought to strive to see this objective beauty of every Mass, whether in a humble country Church or an exquisite city cathedral.

Most Church-going Catholics are (hopefully) familiar with the idea of the “Real Presence” of Christ. Jesus is really, truly present under the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes:

1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.” In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” “This presence is called ‘real’ - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”

Every Mass makes the living Lord Jesus present! What could be more beautiful than that?

Catholics today are probably less aware that the Eucharist is a “sacrifice.” In other words, the Mass makes present the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.  The Catechism explains:

1366 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 because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when 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 was to accomplish once 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 the sins we daily commit.

When Jesus is made present at the altar, he comes as the eternal high priest (cf. Hebrews 7:23-26), who offers the one perfect sacrifice of the Cross to the Father for our sake. While the priests of the Old Covenant brought sacrifices of bulls and goats into the Jewish Temple’s sanctuary day after day, Jesus has entered the heavenly sanctuary to present himself to the Father for our salvation (Hebrews 9). This high priestly work of Jesus is made present in every Mass, which is why we speak of the Mass as a “sacrifice.”

Finally, the Eucharist makes present the worship of all of heaven. In the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, St. John sees a vision of the worship that is taking place in heaven. Angels and saints are gathered around the Lamb of God (Revelation 5:6), offering incense (Revelation 8:3-4), unrolling the scrolls of the Word of God (Revelation 5:1-5, et al.), singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Revelation 4:8), and more. With highly symbolic and often perplexing imagery, the book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of the eternal liturgy of heaven. All of these aspects of heavenly worship are incorporated into the Mass, because our celebration of the Eucharist is meant to unite us to the worship of heaven:

1326 Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all.

This is a bold claim, but it makes perfect sense: If heaven consists of us gathering around Jesus in worship with the angels and saints, and the Eucharist is our unique opportunity on earth to gather around Jesus in worship with the angels and saints, then the Eucharist is a unique foreshadowing of the life of heaven.

As we approach each celebration of the Eucharist, then, let us strive to see that every Mass has an objective beauty that transcends our human senses. Regardless of the quality of the homily, music, or architecture, we know by faith that Jesus Christ is made present, along with his saving sacrifice and the entire worship of heaven.