In the 1 Corinthians 2:5, St Paul says humbly: “...my message and proclamation were not with persuasive words and wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God.” How true this is concerning our faith and what we believe and do as Catholics. Even though history has provided us with so many good theologians, like St. Thomas Aquinas, and many other contemporary men and women of knowledge, our faith still rests on the power of the Holy Spirit. Take for example, the Mass and what we have come to believe.

We believe that the Mass is our participation in Christ's Sacrifice of himself on the Cross for our sins. It is not a new sacrifice, but done, once and for all, by Jesus as High priest, to reconcile all people to the Father. Jesus enables us to participate in his sacrifice when he gave us his Body and Blood at the Last Supper and said, “Do this in memory of me!” We share in that sacrifice because we are members of the Church, the Body of Christ.

The sacrifice of Christ is offered by the whole assembly, presider, and people together. The Mass is not offered by the priest alone on behalf of the people; rather it is offered by the whole body of Christ together with Christ, our Head. (Cf: General Instruction of the Roman Missal #78, 96). Obviously, the most important aspect of the Mass is the reception of the Lord in Communion. Imagine! Jesus offers himself to us in this most profound sign of his love and his desire to be in intimate relationship with us.

The other dimension of participation in the Sacrifice and in the reception of Communion is that we are called to live out the meaning of the Sacrifice after we leave Church. Like Jesus we are called to embrace the Father's will, bringing reconciliation to those around us with the joy of God's love for all people. In this way, we love, as Jesus did, by giving our lives for each other according to the vocation and circumstance our daily lives bring to us.

There are, of course, good explanations of this in our theology books. But when you come down to it, our belief still rests on the power of the Holy Spirit as St. Paul proclaims. Faith is a gift. It is a matter of the heart and soul. When we take our Faith seriously, then we become the “salt of the earth” as Jesus tells the disciples in today's Gospel. I don't know about you, but I really like this idea. In our world which seems to be without a 'compass', our faith and the charge that Jesus gives us provides us with the right direction and instruction.