Thankfulness: Heartfelt gratitude to God, expressed in response to his love and mercy.
Years back, I attended a Sunday service at a local Christian church. I was curious but mostly went to experience Christian fellowship. The main assembly hall seated about 1500 in auditorium style with a stage, band, and video projection. As the service began, the master of ceremonies came out to welcome everyone. He began by sharing an experience he had during the week. He had met someone on the street and invited her to come to his church on Sunday. She replied, “What time does the mass start?” He replied, “lady, we don’t mass, we praise and worship!” It was a dig toward the Catholic faith.
I took no offense and went up with others during the altar call.
I was indoctrinated into the Mass from childhood. I went because my parents went. It is what Catholic families did. I did not understand much about the Mass and that one hour felt a little like purgatory. Back then, it was emphasized that if you missed Mass – you committed a mortal sin. And if not reconciled, binds one to eternity in hell.
Autocratic obedience or threatening eternal damnation did not work very well back then and does not work any better today. And like many others, I entered adulthood without much understanding, or spiritual connectedness to what underlies the Mass.
The rubrics of the Mass ensures universality but what gives these rituals of worship and sacrifice meaning is: the inward spiritual reality from which they flow. If we hope to deepen our spiritual connectedness to what happens at Mass – We must go beyond the physical senses and externals of habit.
My relationship with the Mass changed when I discovered article 1069 of the Catechism. It states: In Christian tradition [liturgy]means: the participation of the People of God in “the work of God.”
As I began to unpack and teach this deeper meaning, I would often get confused looks from people because it requires a paradigm shift. I can still remember one lady saying, “Well, that’s not how we was taught.” I even had someone give me the proverbial evil eye and say, “Work of God – what work does God have to do?”
The “work of God” (Opus Dei) is not new and is best understood in context of the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father sent His Son to redeem man by his sacrifice on the cross. The Mass (Liturgy) is the perpetual action of Jesus the Christ (Head and Body) glorifying the Father by doing His will – redeeming fallen man through his sacrifice on the cross.
A few years back, I was asked by a very bold and learned man, “They say the mass is a sacrifice. What is this sacrifice?” At the time, I really did not have an answer for him but thank God for the question because it has spurred my study so that I am able to return a suitable response if ever again asked. But perhaps the greatest byproduct of the question has been my deepening personal and spiritual engagement in Liturgy – “not to get, but to give.”
As Christians, we have an understanding of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. But we do not as easily see our relationship in the “Body of Christ” and our participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice? If I have a mystical union with Christ and you have a mystical union with Christ, that means we have a particular communion with each other and a co-fellowship “in” Christ’s perpetual sacrifice.
As much as we may like “our” mass – it is not ours. It is an action of the total Christ, or as it was expressed by St. Augustine: “totus Christus”
In Liturgy, we join with Christ by his Body. Its efficacy is not bound by my consciousness of that spiritual reality, but here is the catch. If you asked 99 out of 100 Catholics what the Offertory is about, they would likely tell you it was about bringing up the bread, wine, and money. From just my own experience, I often daydream during the Offertory. It is a time to check out who the ushers are, watching them move from pew to pew, waiting for the basket so I can sometimes drop something from my wallet – then feeling a bit smug when I occasionally drop a big coin. Afterwards, I watch the bread, wine, and collection being brought up to the priest or deacon. Somewhat akin to being in the audience watching a stage play.
The institutional church needs financial support to survive, but one has to ask: “Does God want or need our money?” (No). So what do you think is the highest offering we can give back to God in praise and thanksgiving?
Consider Psalm 51:16-17:
…were I to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
The perfection of Christian sacrifice is the total offering of ourselves to God in union with the sacrifice of Christ. Once we have brought up our sacrificial offerings, the priest (speaking for all of us) with hands extended, says:
You are indeed Holy, O Lord, and all you have created rightly gives you praise, for through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit, you give life to all things and make them holy, and you never cease to gather people to yourself, so that from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name.
Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.
Yes, our first action during the Offertory is to willfully and humbly “give” ourselves back to God. And only in the God who is Love – are our sacrificial offerings returned; not in the value that we have given but, fully consecrated into His full Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Through the Thanksgiving [Eucharistic] sacrifice – God heals us and restores a “clean heart.” This is the inner spiritual reality of our participation in the Offertory and Eucharistic Liturgy.
Yes, all this takes faith and reason – but as bible believing Christians it shouldn’t be as difficult as we make it. Our call is not simply to believe in Jesus but to believe “into” Him. I sometimes wonder if all our divisions and denominations of Christian faith have more to do with semantics and attachment to ego. Regardless, we are called to respect one another’s Christian liberty in the Lord. We are to refrain from harsh judgments of each other. We are always to remember that we are relating to people who have been purchased by Christ.
If you are able to find a moment, meditate on Psalm 51
The image is an interior view of the chapel at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Sedalia, CO. It was taken last year during an 8 day silent retreat.
Ps. I am thankful for a happy childhood and long life, good health, the joy of children and grandchildren, a roof over my head that is absent of debt, a full belly, family and friends, a passion for creative arts, and a deepening faith in God who is Love.
