The Mass Is Helping Us
Because the word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word for “Thanksgiving,” this might be a good time of the year to give thanks for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. So how do we benefit from the celebration of the Eucharist, anyway?
Well, before anything else the Mass is helping us to become people who allow our hearts to be touched. So often trapped behind the confines of soulless algorithms designed to keep our attention, we allow Sunday to break in - and to break us out.
Immediately upon arriving at the church, we find others there who were moved by the same Spirit. The Mass is helping us to be less afraid of the other. These are the names and faces of the anonymous “they” and “them.” At church, we feel close to our fellow man.
Once gathered, we sing together, not to embellish, but because song is a fitting response to the love that calls us to this place. The mystery of melody moves beyond what words alone can describe. The Mass is helping us to be a people that sings. Only the lover sings.
There is a man in the sanctuary wearing vestments that mark him as chosen by Christ. He both addresses us and pleads to God on our behalf. The Mass is helping us to become people who allow someone to welcome us and to do something for us.
We are seated while a lector reads to us from a book we call holy. We say it was inspired by the One who created the universe and that in hearing its words we are hearing Him. The Mass is helping us to allow someone to speak to us. We learn to listen.
The Offertory is a movement of two things at the same time, the giving of money and the bringing forward of the bread and wine to the altar. Both are ways of entrusting ourselves to God and His providence. The Mass is helping us to depend on God.
We give ourselves to the prayers of the priest, whose gestures over the bread and wine draw us into the mysterious origin of the Mass, namely, the Last Supper. The Mass helps us to remain rooted in history, which, in turn, enables us to bear fruit.
Responding aloud, we show that prayer is also a lifting of our voices to God. And yet, we respond just loud enough to hear our own voice while still hearing our neighbor’s. The Mass is teaching us to be people who speak while still listening.
And of course, coming forward to receive Our Lord in Communion is an experience of being fed, which is valuable formation in this age. The Mass is helping us to live in the proper relationship with truth, namely, to receive it as entrusted to us by God, begotten not made.
I am grateful to my earthly family for all that I’ve received from them, for the affection and the instruction. But, together with my family, I am even more grateful for the help that God offers us through the celebration of the Eucharist, from which all true thanksgiving flows. +