If you find your mind wandering during Mass, take a moment to focus on what has
your attention. Is there something God might be asking you to pay attention to
in your life? Does it refer to an area of your life that you are keeping from
God? Present God with your heart’s desires and ask Him for the wisdom to
understand what they mean.
When the woman with the hemorrhage reached out in a crowd and touched Jesus, she
was healed
(Mt. 9:20-23). This was what she truly desired, and by bringing it to Jesus, her
prayer was answered beyond
her wildest dreams.
When we bring our dreams to Mass and open them up to the Lord, He will fill them
with a treasure that can neither rust nor be eaten by moths, a treasure that
satisfies our desires.
Another group that may get nothing out of Mass is the person that never attends.
There was a man who never attended Mass, yet taught much about the Mass. He
would point to the sun and describe how it was like the Sacred Host held aloft
by the priest during Mass, a constant reminder of the Son of God who looked over
all creation.
Why would he not attend Mass? Someone said that it was because one day some in
the congregation had made fun of the way he dressed and made him feel unworthy
to be there.
Later in his life he returned, always dressed in a suit at a time when most were
dressed rather haphazardly. He made his confession, and he received our Lord
regularly in the final years of his life.
I pray that those who are away will return, ignoring modern day Pharisees or
anyone else who has kept or is keeping them from Jesus. If someone has sins you
are ashamed of, confess them, be forgiven and return to the Lord, receiving His
Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament.
The centurion whose servant was ill told our Lord that he was not worthy for Him
to come under his roof. None of us is worthy. We are all sinners. If you are
convinced of your sinfulness, congratulations-our Lord died for us while we were
still sinners.
Our Lord dinned with sinners and was publicly scorned for doing so. Today is no
different. Every church is filled with sinners who ask His forgiveness and learn
from Him the way to eternal life. We are His children and He cares for us in the
same way that any good parent would care for his child. The Psalmist said, “For
God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He only is my
rock and my salvation, my fortress.
There is another way to block your entire body from the Lord and yet be present
in the church and that is by refusing to truly die to yourself. Saint Paul,
writing about the Christian life, said “The body is not meant for immortality,
but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Those of us who enter the church
must realize that conversion is an ongoing process, and that we must constantly
measure ourselves against the ideal of the Gospel.
Sadly, sometimes we fall into the trap of acting as though the way we live our
lives has nothing to do with the faith we profess.
Origin of the Mass
Almost two thousand years ago, on the night before He died, Jesus of Nazareth
celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples. They gathered in an upper room
in Jerusalem. Scripture tells us that at the end of the meal, Jesus suddenly
departed from the well-known ritual. He took bread into His hands, said a
blessing over it, then broke it as His disciples watched.
Then Jesus gave the fragments to them saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” We
can only wonder what the disciples thought as they received this bread He
declared to be His Body. Did the fragments remind them of the multiplication of
the loaves? Did it remind them of the time they had forgotten to bring bread and
Jesus told them He was the Bread of Life? Only Luke’s Gospel records a response
to these words, telling us that a dispute broke out among them.
Jesus then took a cup filled with wine and gave thanks to God for its contents.
Then looking at those in His presence, He said to them, “This cup which is
poured out for you is the new covenant of my blood. Do this in memory of me.”
Jesus declared a “new” covenant between God and humanity. Like the Paschal meal
that He celebrated on that night with His disciples, this New Covenant will be
celebrated by the followers of Jesus until He comes again. It is this New
Covenant that we celebrate each time we come to Mass.
What is our response to the command of Jesus? Jesus’ “body,” His “blood,” “Do
this…in remembrance of me”? do we realize that our very existence depends upon
our response?
Walking toward the church door we are mindful that, as hard as it is sometimes
to get to that door, our very life depends upon what awaits for us behind the
walls of this church-the very Body and Blood of the One who said, “I am the way,
and the truth and the life.”
Without Christ we are as good as dead. No one thinks much about this anymore.
People consider themselves very scientific and sophisticated, but everyone seems
to gloss over the fact that our experience tells us that we come into existence
in our mother’s womb, and when we breathe our last breath, our body immediately
starts to decay and we cease to exist. Death is the end…it is our faith in God
that teaches us that there is life after death.
Yet, other things might seem more important, and indeed they would be if this
life is all there is, but if there is a chance for life after death, then
getting to that church door is well worth every effort I can make. In fact,
getting through that door is the most important thing I will do in my earthly
life.