The Mass

During the time of the English Reformation in the 1500’s, in England, it was against the law for any priest to say Mass. Now this was a stupid law because the Catholic Mass is indeed a very great treasure that every person needs in their life. When a priest says Mass, he calls upon the mercy of God and asks God to forgive us and to bless us with His wonderful graces.

At that time King Henry VIII said that he was the head of the Church of England and that the Pope was not. It was through pride that the people of England fell away from the Catholic Church and disobeyed the Pope. And God punished England for doing this.

Officers of the law made constant raids upon certain houses where they believed that Mass was being offered. After one of these raids, a certain nobleman was arrested and brought before the Judge. He was accused of being present while Mass was being offered and the Judge fined him 500 pounds. Pounds is a type of money they have in England and at that time, 500 pounds may have been about $50.00, which was a lot of money in those days.

The nobleman kept his money in a special chest at home. He asked for permission to return to his home in order to get the necessary money with which to pay the fine. Under guard, the nobleman made his way home, got his money from the chest, and brought it back to court. The bags of gold were placed before the Judge and he counted them out to see that there was exactly 500 pounds. As he counted the coins, he noticed that they were all new, thick and heavy coins.

“Why have you chosen to pay your fine with such good coins?” the Judge asked in surprise. “I should have thought you would have chosen your old, thin and worn ones!”

To this statement, the nobleman gave this wonderful reply, “I am paying for the honour of worshiping my God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and that is worth the very best gold that I have stored in my chest at home!”

How good that nobleman was! How much he loved God! We should love God like he did. We should be ready to pay any price to have the beautiful Latin Mass. We should go to Mass with great joy, knowing that the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament are the greatest treasures we have on this earth.

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