Fr Billy Swan
Dear friends. For all of us who gather week-in week-out in the Church for Mass, if someone asks us the question ‘what are we doing there?’, what answer would we give? This question might seem simple but it is so important. What are we doing there? I suggest that this question is one of the main reasons why so many choose to stay away from taking part regularly at the Eucharist. Why? Because they simply don’t know what they do when they come.
Recently I listened to a priest explain it this way. He said: ‘I don’t like watching sports. I like playing sports but I don’t like watching other people do stuff. It’s boring. From the time we were first brought to Mass by our parents, we were told to ‘listen and keep quiet. Watch the priest.’ This was our introduction to how we participate in the Mass. For most of us this was the extent of our participation – to listen, keep quiet and watch. Therefore, Mass soon became like a spectator sport. It was something we watched from a distance but did not take part in ourselves. No wonder the Mass became boring’. When we became adults, we probably understood more of the Mass but for the most part, we continued in the role of a spectator on the side-lines who listens and watches but doesn’t really take part.
This is why the question of ‘what are we doing here?’ is so important. We are here not just to listen, to watch and keep quiet but to worship God with all our hearts. This is the heart of the matter and the heart of every Mass we take part in. At the Eucharist we are invited as a family to worship God our Father as his beloved children or as Jeremiah says in the first reading: ‘to turn our hearts back to the Lord’. Note that this is not the command of a god who demands our worship for his own sake. Rather it is the invitation of the God who loves us, knows us and who gives us the joy of worshipping him who is worthy of that worship and trust.
It is like St Peter in last week’s Gospel when he saw the miraculous catch of fish. He fell to his knees to worship Christ not because he had to but because he found himself before the generosity and glory of God. At that moment he instinctively fell on his knees because it was the only reaction possible. Or take the crib at Christmas when we contemplate the humility of God in becoming one of us out of love and closeness. Or the cross on Good Friday when the love of God was emptied out on the world by Christ who plummeted the depths of our humanity to offer us hope. These are the mysteries of Christ’s life that move us to worship the Father because they are inspired by his love.
Someone once said: ‘Tell me who or what a person worships and I can tell who he is’. Do we worship the living God at the Eucharist with all our hearts, bodies and souls? Are we prepared to change our understanding of why we are here from just listening, watching and attending to actively worshipping God the Father who loves us? If we are then we will be truly blessed in the way that Jeremiah describes in today’s reading: ‘A blessing on the person who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its shoots to the stream, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought and never ceases to bear fruit’.
Don’t be a spectator on the side-lines. Be a participant at the centre of our main purpose of gathering for Mass - to worship the living God with all our hearts, bodies and souls.
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