I am a convert to the Catholic faith. When people ask me to explain my conversion, my immediate response is to say that I am a Catholic because of the Mass. Many today say that they are bored by the Mass. Many seem to be comatosed when they are at Mass. But for those who experience Christ's presence at Mass there will always be a hunger in them which only our Eucharistic Lord can satisfy. I use the word "experience" advisedly. I am convinced that Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us Himself in the Eucharist that His people by faith might "experience" His sacrificial love. What we must bring to Mass is our faith that the bread and wine are changed into His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. (This is what the Church is teaching us in the doctrine of Transubstantiation). We must pray the Mass in order to exercise our faith. As we prayerfully exercise one faith we will know that our Lord is present in the sacrifice of the Mass. We will journey from this world of time into the eternity of the Kingdom of God.

It seems to me on reflection that Mass may be experienced as Heaven on earth or earth raised to Heaven. In either ease Heaven is present to us in the clearest and most profound way since our Lord Jesus Christ is with us in the Most Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

St. John in the 5th chapter of the book of Revelation describes how we experience eternity in time. He beheld the Lamb before the throne of the Father as "if He had been once slain" and now makes intercession for us (Revelation 5:6, 11-12). With the eyes of faith we hold in the Mass the Lamb who offers Himself continuously to the Father in Heaven.

We have scripture evidence elsewhere that the sacrifice of Christ transcends time. The sacrifice is made present by our Lord the night before he died when he instituted the Mass.

The book of Hebrews also show us that Lord Jesus is our Eternal High Priest who offers Himself to the Father for us. (Hebrews 10:12, 14).

As a former evangelical Protestant the reality of this eternal sacrifice of Christ offered once and continuously in the Mass was, oddly enough, brought home to me by watching Billy Graham on TV. At the end of Dr. Graham's message he invites people to come forward and receive Christ. (At Mass Christ invites us to come and receive Him in Holy Communion). Usually at Dr. Graham's crusades the people come forward as the hymn, "Just as I am" is being sung. The words of the hymn express the reality of Christ's sacrificial death present now. The words read: "Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bid'st me come to Thee; O Lamb of God. I come".

In other words people are coming forward now to receive Christ who gives His life now for them. Protestants in this, experience in a partial way, what we Catholics can experience fully in Holy Mass. The Mass is the fullness of Christ's saving work of the Cross. His sacrificial death for love of us is revealed at every Mass. His love is revealed and we share the eternal life His love gives us when we receive Him in Holy Communion.