Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

If the sun fizzled out and disappeared, what would happen? Holly Otterbein, from Popular Science, says that within a week the average temperature of our planet would reach 0°F. In the resulting coldness and darkness, all plants and animals would quickly die. 

What could be more important to the world than the sun? Yet it has been said, “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass.” The Catholic Mass is more important than the sun? Are you kidding me? At first glance these words certainly seem crazy, but let us look a little deeper.

These are not the words of some pious, medieval monk, but the words of a modern, educated man who died in 1968: Francesco Forgione, popularly known as Padre Pio. There is no room here to describe the life of this holy Italian priest, but you can read about his amazing life in Padre Pio by Fr. Charles Carty. 

First, to understand these words of Padre Pio, we must look at the world from the point of view of the Creator, and second, we must understand what the Catholic Mass is.

Why did God choose to create this universe out of nothing? In order to show forth His Goodness and to make us happy with Him in heaven. The purpose of creation is to give glory to God through the knowledge and loving praise of rational creatures (mankind).

But when the human race fell from grace and friendship with God by the Original Sin of Adam, creation could no longer fulfill its purpose (except in hope of the future Redeemer). If the world was definitively incapable of giving glory to God, it would instantly cease to be, since God keeps nothing useless in existence. That is where Redemption comes in. Those who participate in Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary, cleansed from their Original Sin and personal sins, are again able to fulfill the purpose of creation and return loving praise to their Father, hence preserving the world’s existence because it is worthwhile in the eyes of God. 

The Catholic Mass is the same sacrifice as that of Calvary. Although now in an unbloody manner, Jesus still renews His sacrifice through the Mass, offering Himself to the Father by the hands of the Catholic priest. The merits of Jesus are renewed and applied to us today by the Mass. Therefore, if the sun was extinguished, but the Sacrifice of Jesus returned an infinite glory to the Father, then creation would still fulfill its purpose and hence still exist. That is how we can say that the Mass is more important for the world than the sun.

Padre Pio didn’t just celebrate his Mass, he lived it by the sacrifice of his service to his fellow men, after the example of Jesus. His whole life manifested his belief that the Mass is more important for the earth than the sun.

Br. Maximilian Watner is on the staff at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Buckingham County. He can be reached at webmaster@stas.org.