Corpus Christi Blog

Are You a Consumer or a Giver at Mass?

03-18-2018Weekly ReflectionFr. Chad King

During the Recessional a couple of weeks ago, we sang one my favorite songs: Jesus, My Everything, by Matt Maher. As the servers and I left the Sanctuary and headed to the back of the church, I noticed only a handful of people had their books open. Even though I was singing/praying, I was able to make a lot of eye contact. However, I didn’t see many other people’s mouths moving, let alone hear many others singing. To be frank, that saddened me. Even though I appreciate the eye contact, if I had to choose, I would prefer everyone looking at the words and singing/praying along. Here are the lyrics to Jesus, My Everything, which I hope everyone will be able to honestly pray and strive towards:

I've been looking for a reason
I've been longing for a purpose
Losing all my meaning
Run out of excuses

Lord it's hard to know you
I don't always see your plan
But holiness is calling me
So take me as I am

'Cause you are my everything
You are the song I sing
I'll do anything for you
Teach me how to pray
To live a life of grace
I'll go anywhere for you
Jesus be my everything

Lord I get so tired
Of the struggle within
I settle in complacency
And I’m weighed down in my sins

So lead me past emotion
'Cause they change with the wind
I want to be a true disciple
To daily choose your hand

'Cause you are my everything
You are the song I sing
I'll do anything for you
Teach me how to pray
To live a life of grace
I'll go anywhere for you

You are my everything
You are the song I sing
I'll do anything for you
Teach me how to pray
To live a life of grace
I'll go anywhere for you
Jesus be my everything

Jesus be my everything
Jesus be my everything

Recently, a person coming back to Church after a while admitted honestly thinking Mass was boring. Sadly, I agree--Mass is boring for those who don’t really have a relationship with God.  But for those of us who do, is it boring to be in communion with the one we love?  Are you in a hurry to leave your loved ones? Do you ever get bored saying “I love you” or hearing it from your spouse, children, or any other person?  In every Mass, God tells us, “I love you” and shows us how much he loves us by making present His Sacrifice upon the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins and our salvation!  Yet, do we recognize that when we go to Mass?  It really happens, every single Mass, but do we take it for granted?  Now that I know and love our Lord the way I do, no way can Mass be boring, nor do I just want it to end. Thus, it saddens me when I see people rushing out, not singing, not participating, not entering into the prayer and worship, and seemingly not entering into the exchange of I-love-you’s.

How invested are we in the Mass each week? In the Old Testament, when people brought animals to the temple to be sacrificed it wasn’t like they dropped them off and went about their way. No, they must have been thoroughly invested.  After all, some of the times, they had been the ones who fed and raised the animals that they then happily offered to God for the forgiveness of their sins. I can picture people completely engaged in what is happening, following their animals (such as male lambs for Passover) as they are handed over to the priest to be sacrificed. Looking, thinking, “There he goes. There goes my blood, sweat, and tears, being offered to the Lord. I offer it for all the sins I have committed, for all the ways I have not made God my everything. Now Lord accept this sacrifice of myself!” Is that what we say and pray when the bread and wine are brought forward at every Mass?

Psalm 50 says, “Summon before me my people who made covenant with me by sacrifice.” (By the way, that is exactly what we are doing at every Mass). Then in the Psalm, God goes on to tell the people gathered, “I find no fault with your sacrifices, your offerings are always before me. I do not ask more bullocks from your farms, nor goats from among your herds. For I own all the beasts of the forest, I know all the birds in the sky. Were I hungry, I would not tell you, for I own the world and all it holds. Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?” In other words, he is clarifying for the people the real purpose of sacrifice--it isn’t about the actual animals at all, but what the animals represent. 

For many, the animals were a source of income, their livelihood, and in some cases--like the Golden Calf-- they were objects the people worshipped. God wanted to purify and forgive the people, but to do so they had to offer up something valuable and meaningful to them as an act of saying that God is the most important and valuable to them and not the animals. That is the purpose of the offering for the sacrifice.  Psalm 50 continues, “Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and render him your votive offerings.”  In other words, the purpose of the sacrifice is an act of thanksgiving--thanking God for his forgiveness. 

That is also what every Eucharist is--our thanksgiving for God’s forgiveness and love.  But again, for us to know that it is effective, we must make the offering of ourselves.  Think about all the blood, sweat, and tears that were spent by the people who made the bread and wine even possible to be offered.  Are we offering ourselves--our very hearts--in the sacrifice?  Are we offering to God the sacrifice of praise by our singing, our praying, our responding, our listening, and our entering in to the Mass with all our hearts?  Are we so enwrapped that we don’t know where the time went? Dominic Savio (my Confirmation saint) would be found so deep in prayer after Mass that he wouldn’t’ even recognize that the other boys had gone out for recess.  May you and I become like him. Similarly, it would do my heart proud if, even after the closing song, everyone would stay in silent private prayer to give thanks for what/whom they have just received and encountered. I will be happy to wait outside to greet you!

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