What is Liturgy? (continued)
Being a critic of the Mass has become somewhat of a hobby in the post-Vatican II Church. There are books devoted to identifying whether your priest is celebrating a valid Mass and whom to report him to if he is not. Recently, a priest who writes a question and answer column about Catholic issues said that the majority of questions he receives every month request an answer to whether various practices are allowed. Nine out of ten are allowed, the priest added. In other words, a lot of people are wasting their time policing the way their parish priest says Mass or the way some other minister fulfills a function at Mass.
These attempts at liturgical purity only lead to the worshipper becoming a spectator or a critic. It is a grave temptation that keeps us from fully receiving Christ!
Spectators surrounded our Lord both during His ministry and while He hung upon the cross. Only those who reached out in faith and touched His cloak received the grace that flowed from Him. We, too, will not receive the innumerable graces that can be ours if we come to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass only looking for evidence of His absence.
The shortcomings of liturgy are always present if we look hard enough. Some priests have been the victims of witch-hunting purists. If someone is doing something wrong, by all means work to correct the problem, but do not allow yourself to be distracted from the gifts God wishes to bestow upon you during the sacred act of the Mass.
Some of us block our hearts to our Lord when we show up at Mass filled with desires that we think and believe have nothing to do with God. If that’s the case, we’re only nominally showing up, because our thoughts are someplace else. Sometimes we are preoccupied with our treasures, a person, or ourselves. We have not yet realized that at the root of whatever our hearts desires is communion with God.
Saint Augustine, who spent his youth seeking his heart’s desires, finally realized this when he said that “our hearts are restless until they rest in thee”-the “thee” referring to God.
There is a point in every Mass at which we can bring our desires to God. But because many of us do not see the connection, we miss it. There is also a time to hear what the Word of God has to say about our desires. It is not necessary to ignore these desires that weigh upon our hearts, but to bring them to God in the context of what God is saying to us during Mass.
Think of those in the Gospels who came face-to-face with our Lord, but let pass an opportunity to bring their needs and desires before the very creator of the universe. They stood in the presence of the God who could answer all of their prayers, and yet because they were focused on something or someone else, they missed that opportunity!
Whatever it is that we are worried about during Mass, we should avail ourselves of the Lord’s Presence. Refusing to recognize Him as the source of all being, we are no different from those who, after meeting our Lord, told Him, “Let me first go and bury my father.” In other words, “I like what you’re saying, but I have something more important to do right now!”
We should not deny our heart’s desires, but we should bring them to God and allow Him to reveal what it is we truly desire.