Mass as heaven on Earth? How can we enter heaven?

[jimmy]

That sounds like you’re saying that Mary became sinless only when the Holy Spirit descended upon her and she conceived Jesus?

No, that isn’t what I was saying. The declaration of the IC specifically speaks of her being preserved from sin specifically by the Grace of God. The Grace of God is nothing other than the action/energy of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine nature itself.

Maybe we could speak of the Annunciation in terms of deification, but that is not my purpose. The Annunciation doesn’t really pertain to what I am saying at the moment.

Can you cite a source for this? I thought our venial sins were forgiven at the Penitential rite, not at reception of the Eucharist.

The prayers I cited are liturgical prayers, which are authoritative in themselves. They are specifically from the anaphora of the Twelve Apostles in the Maronite liturgy. Scott Hahn (the author of the Lamb’s Supper) speaks of the liturgy as the living tradition of the Church. That is where we find the essence of our faith.

Maybe we can speak of forgiveness in two senses. First as a declaration that your sins will not be held against you, and second as an actual transformation and purification of the heart and as communion. The western perspective looks at forgiveness in the first sense, and the eastern perspective approaches it from the second sense.

 

[floresco]

But, how can it be that our sinful selves enter into heaven??

While I agree that there is some contact with heaven when we go to Mass, it is not the same as entering heaven for eternity. Even so, we approach Mass with a great sense of our unworthiness to be there and dependence on God’s grace. I find that these themes are expressed much more clearly in the traditional Mass. There is greater emphasis on the Mass as the perfect Sacrifice offered in propitiation for our sins. We can approach God because Jesus Christ Our Lord died on the cross on our behalf.

 

[Timothy17]

…understand that the Mass has been described as heaven on Earth.

However, I also understand that “nothing unclean can enter heaven” Rev 21:27 (thus, the need for purification/purgatory prior to entrance into Heaven).

So how can we, participants at Mass, truly enter into the Heavenly Liturgy in our sinful states?

…heaven…it is real.

But, how can it be that our sinful selves enter into heaven??

Dear Friend, now thou hast become the Apostle’s muse

God bless you and may he lead you to the peace of understanding, and through you enlighten us all

 

[PRmerger]

No, that isn’t what I was saying. The declaration of the IC specifically speaks of her being preserved from sin specifically by the Grace of God. The Grace of God is nothing other than the action/energy of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine nature itself.

Ah. Yes, we are agreed.

The prayers I cited are liturgical prayers, which are authoritative in themselves.

Right. I’m not doubting you. I just want to know what liturgical prayers say that "it is the nearness of God that heals us. We aren’t healed and then recieve communion with God as an after thought. We recieve communion with God and through that reception we are healed and forgiven.

 

[EasterJoy]

I like to think of it as touching the side of the boat that is your only way of keeping from drowning. You aren’t in the boat, the operation of saving you is not complete, but you would sink, were the boat not there. Your salvation has arrived, and all those truly saved are present there with you, making your salvation possible. Yet you are not in the boat yet, because you could yet choose to refuse your salvation. After all, though we must be clean to enter Heaven, it is impossible without the work of Heaven that we be cleansed. Heaven must touch us as we are in order for us to be able to enter Heaven. This is the great glory of the Incarnation, that God reached out to us and loved us and touched us while we were yet sinful, not worthy to touch him nor able to do it. We always approach Heaven in just that poverty.

Underline mine:
From the Catechism:
1419 *Having passed from this world to the Father, Christ gives us in the Eucharist the pledge of glory with him. Participation in the Holy Sacrifice identifies us with his Heart, sustains our strength along the pilgrimage of this life, makes us long for eternal life, and unites us even now to the Church in heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints. *

From Sacramentum Caritatis, Apostolic Exortation of Pope Benedict XVI:
The Eucharist: a gift to men and women on their journey
30. If it is true that the sacraments are part of the Church’s pilgrimage through history (99) towards the full manifestation of the victory of the risen Christ, it is also true that, especially in the liturgy of the Eucharist, they give us a real foretaste of the eschatological fulfilment for which every human being and all creation are destined (cf. Rom 8:19ff.). Man is created for that true and eternal happiness which only God’s love can give. But our wounded freedom would go astray were it not already able to experience something of that future fulfilment. Moreover, to move forward in the right direction, we all need to be guided towards our final goal. That goal is Christ himself, the Lord who conquered sin and death, and who makes himself present to us in a special way in the eucharistic celebration. Even though we remain “aliens and exiles” in this world (1 Pet 2:11), through faith we already share in the fullness of risen life. The eucharistic banquet, by disclosing its powerful eschatological dimension, comes to the aid of our freedom as we continue our journey.

The eschatological banquet
31. Reflecting on this mystery, we can say that Jesus’ coming responded to an expectation present in the people of Israel, in the whole of humanity and ultimately in creation itself. By his self-gift, he objectively inaugurated the eschatological age. Christ came to gather together the scattered People of God (cf. Jn 11:52) and clearly manifested his intention to gather together the community of the covenant, in order to bring to fulfilment the promises made by God to the fathers of old (cf. Jer 23:3; Lk 1:55, 70). In the calling of the Twelve, which is to be understood in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the command he gave them at the Last Supper, before his redemptive passion, to celebrate his memorial, Jesus showed that he wished to transfer to the entire community which he had founded the task of being, within history, the sign and instrument of the eschatological gathering that had its origin in him. Consequently, every eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God. For us, the eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of the final banquet foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 25:6-9) and described in the New Testament as “the marriage-feast of the Lamb” (Rev 19:7-9), to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of saints (100).

 

[PNEUMA]

Mass as heaven on Earth? How can we enter heaven?

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to" (Matthew 23:13)

You can enter through Christ.

In Mass you have the opportunity to become one with Christ. If you become one body, one spirit, one blood with Christ, you as Christ are in heaven.

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6)