Participating in the perfect sacrifice

There is a cosmic back and forth here, a movement to-and-fro, from heaven to earth and back again.  In Christian worship, the body of Christ on the cross is perpetually lifted up by the Body of Christ, the Church, which is itself conducted through the veil to the Holy of Holies, and then returned to earth, renewed in its redemptive mission . . . It is maddeningly wondrous, surpassing our understanding, but no more than one might expect if the greater wonder is true, that earth and heaven are joined in God become man. - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus - Death on a Friday Afternoon


It becomes either more or less maddeningly wondrous in light of the previous reflection on eternity.  The reason we pray over and over again, "Almighty God, may your angel take this sacrifice to your altar in heaven.  Then, as we receive from this altar the sacred Body and Blood of your Son, let us be filled with every grace and blessing" (ibid, quoting Eucharistic Prayer 1, English text © ICEL) has to do with what we mean by "this sacrifice."  If we're praying the Mass properly, we are not merely offering the Father the perfect sacrifice of his Son, but also offering our not-so-perfect selves.  The sacrifice of Jesus is finished, but it is not over (ibid); Jesus' has offered himself completely for all eternity, yet it remains for us to fully participate in that sacrifice.  


This idea of the Body of Christ lifting up the body of Christ is spot on.  It is our mission, and our privilege.  As we do so, we become more fully, yet still (in time) imperfectly, the Body of Christ.  We will never reach perfection in this transformation individually or in time.  It will be completed only in communion with the whole Body of Christ, united in him, and only in eternity.  Yet we see wondrous bits of transformation in the lives of those who are truly attempting to walk with Christ with their entire lives. 


This union initiated by God, permitted by Mary's fiat (inspired by God and a gift of his grace to her and to us), manifest in the eternal Word become a human being, brought to fulfillment by Jesus' glorification - which in addition to the events listed by Fr. Neuhaus at the start of the quotation in that previous post, surely must include the outpouring of the Holy Spirit - makes everything else possible.  We're living in time and on earth, yet earth and heaven are united in eternity in Jesus Christ.