SENT FORTH. After a long side trip in which I reflected on the 2022 Apostolic Letter Pope Francis issued on the Sacred Liturgy, ‘Desiderio Desideravi,’ and other issues, like the many excuses people use for missing holy Mass, I return to the beginning. More than a year ago, in June 2022, I began my series of reflections [this is #48!] on the USA Bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival document The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church.
Today I begin a two-part reflection, in which we consider the final comments, made by our episcopal shepherds, on our need to SHARE our FAITH IN and PRACTICE OF God’s Great Gift of Eucharist. For past articles on this Revival, the whole document, and a free study guide, go to our parish website – stmaryrutherford.org – and click on National Eucharistic Revival Bulletin Articles.
SENT FORTH. These words of Jesus: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” [Matthew 10:8b] should ring in our ears each time we receive the Most Holy Eucharist or celebrate ANY Sacrament. For these God-given Gifts are given so that we may share them with others, and through them, help build up God’s Kingdom on earth. No wonder Pope Benedict, before he officially promulgated the 2011 Third Revision of the Roman Missal, which gave us the Mass orations we now use, personally added a Dismissal option to the Concluding Rites: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”
Imagine what your life, your family and friends, our Parish, Diocesan and Civic Communities, our Country, the Church – indeed, the Whole World – would be like if we lived by that mantra: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Pope Francis continues to echo this challenge by also calling each one of us to do our part in the New Evangelization by sharing our Faith with those who have become lukewarm, have fallen away, or who never knew what great Gifts we have in our Church and her Sacraments. If we keep these Gifts to ourselves, we will know the shame of the man who was castigated for burying, and not sharing, his treasure. [Cf: Matthew 25:14-30] SOURCE AND SUMMIT. More than a year ago, my 09/19/2022 bulletin article had a quote from the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium [Light of the World] on the unique importance of the Most Blessed Sacrament above all other Sacraments. It described the Eucharist as the “FOUNT and APEX” or, in some translations, the ”SOURCE and SUMMIT” of our faith journey. An analogy from the 1960’s explained how the Eucharist is our ‘source’ by likening it to the old neighborhood gas station. Back then, the local gas station was more than a filling station; you went there for directions, to use a restroom, to have your car tuned up or worked on, and to ‘shoot the breeze.’ The owner was like family [for me, it was ‘Larry’s’ in Irvington]; we were loyal to each other and supported one another. Would that every Parish family be the same!
That analogy ‘limps’ since, unlike the Eucharist, the gas station is NOT the summit or goal. Nor is it like Disney’s EPCOT: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which has yet to live up to its name. The Church is not Experimental: she was formed by God who graces and empowers her to reach her goal … which she will only do in heaven. Nor is she a Prototype: she is a living reality whose growth will continue until the end of time. While she should be a true Community, a goal that she will not attain until we are in heaven, she bestows and builds up her blessings every day, not just Tomorrow.
So, we come to holy Mass to: strengthen our unity; have God’s Word proclaimed and explained; state who we are and what we have been called to do; express our needs and concerns; be sated with the ultimate spiritual food: the Body and Blood of Christ; to be fortified by a blessing; and to be sent forth to sow the seeds that were sown in us. What a far cry from those who still believe they are simply there to ‘fulfill the obligation’ to ‘hear’ Mass!
Regardless of which of the prescribed Dismissals is offered by the Deacon, Priest or Bishop, perhaps the best way to leave holy Mass is to ask ourselves: “What will I say and do, or not say or do, to glorify the Lord by MY life?”
With God’s love and my prayers,
Very Rev. Michael J. Kreder, VF, KCHS