Welcoming the Lord

Most of us are aware that we cannot celebrate Mass without a priest.  While this no doubt makes our priests feel needed, it can have the unfortunate side effect of leading some of faithful to think that Mass is something that the priest “does” for the rest of the Church.  In reality, the Mass is something that we all do together.  The priest is here to preside over the Mass, but each of us also has an important role.

We are one.  Our Catholic faith does not allow the distinction of “us” versus “them.”  On Sunday we gather in one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.  Yet, we are many.  When we gather, it’s also to witness to the commonality of our faith, evident in the many parts that make up the one Body.

Whether we are Hispanic, Native American, African American, European, or Vietnamese, we stand side by side around the table of the Altar and sing our thanksgiving to God.  And while that song may sound different in our different cultures, this Eucharist, this thanksgiving, is the song of our hearts.  The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin wrote that we leave Mass, “carrying the tune we have heard.”  A tune that resonates within all of us, because we share one heart.

Before we are anything else – any ethnicity, nationality or citizenship – we are the Body of Christ, sisters and brothers by our Baptism.   (CCC 1207)

Our faith teaches us that Christ dwells in every member of his body, that we can find him in the people who gather with us here every Sunday.  We are not strangers who have gathered – even if we’ve never met – we know each other, because each one of us carries Jesus in us.

What an awesome responsibility each of us has, bearing Christ as we do.  All of a sudden we begin to understand that our presence here is not just about “coming to Church,” or “going to Mass;” it’s about gathering and welcoming each other and recognizing that in offering hospitality to each other we are offering it to Christ himself.

Through the week, all of us are scattered throughout our community.  On Sunday, we reconnect with the other members of the Body.  Smiling and saying hello.  Sharing the stories of our lives and our concerns and expressing the love of Christ that binds us one to another.

This is not irreverent in church, because it’s the way we welcome the Lord in our midst.  Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).  His presence in each of us is one of the ways that he reveals himself to us at Mass.  Reverence requires that we recognize him and respond to him.

Gathering and offering hospitality to each other is an important way we prepare for the celebration of the Mass.