I know I talk about Mass a lot. Don’t worry, it’s not going to be the only thing I ever focus on. It’s just the first step in a larger plan. I do want to build community, do outreach, and have some fun too! But, it’s important to maintain priorities. I want to start by building up our understanding of and participation in the worship of God because God comes first. With a solid core and foundation, we can expand to the many other aspects of Church life.
In the fall of 2008, I had a deeper conversion and return to the practice of my Catholic faith. This experience was a lot like the times I fell in love in my younger years, only I was now in love with God and His Church. I know many of you share that love and I want as many as people as possible to share it. Ex-pressing this love, however, is not quite the same as expressing your love for your spouse.
And yet, the central reality is very similar. When you are in love with someone, you seek to spend time with them, to give them gifts, to affirm and sup-port their goals in life, to serve them in some way, and to show affection through touch. Consider these as five ways or languages of expressing love. There is a great book about them called “The 5 Love Languages.” Part of the premise of the book is that peo-ple expresses and receive love in a variety of ways and not always in the same way as the person they love. This means that, if you want the one you love to see that you love them, it is important to speak their language. There’s a lot more to it and you should read the book, but my point is that this principle also applies to our love for God.
Barring some major change of plans, the homily you heard today should have focused on some aspect of repentance and turning from sin. I pray that it didnot come across as judgmental or fear-mongering. Regardless, the point of repentance is not just that weshould be afraid of God’s anger (though it is a fear-some thing!), but that we need to cast out sin in order to be free to love God. Throughout our entire lives as Christians, we must continue to turn away from sin.
This effort means we are simultaneously trying to turn toward God and the things of God… that you are trying to express your love to God. We all have individual ways to show that, but we must not forget God’s love language! One major way that God re-ceives our love is through the Liturgy. The Mass is the Source and Summit of our faith. It is the way God, through the Church, has asked us to show love. People often say “I don’t get much out of Mass.” Well, that’s just it, the Mass isn’t first and foremost about what you get, but what you give.
Yes, we do want to be fed and encouraged by our participation in Mass, but that only happens if we remember that it is all about God. The goal of Mass is to glorify God, to show our love to Him in the way he asked us to show it: the Liturgy. That funny word comes from Greek and means “work of/for the peo-ple.” It is a “work,” a choice to do something for an-other regardless of whether or not we enjoy it every time. People with successful marriages know that lasting love is often seen in the choice to do mun-dane chores for the sake of your spouse. Sometimes you enjoy the work, sometimes you don’t.
Mass is not a chore! But, that analogy helps us remember this: You go to give love, not receive. Mass lets us show that love by our words, by our ser-vice, by our giving, by our time, and even by touch when and if we receive communion. If you go with this attitude to give, you’ll find that, like so much in life, it is in giving that we receive.
– In Christ,
Fr. Albert