As we learned last week, the celebration of the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Christian life. All things in the universe come from God and are meant to return to God: source and summit. Since the Eucharist is God Himself, it makes sense that our lives follow this same cosmic pattern with the Mass.
But, the Eucharist is not everything in between. Between our creation and Heaven there is a real journey with choices that matter. The Mass is the “source” of the Christian life because it feeds us with God’s Word and the Body and Blood of Christ. Without knowing the Truth we could not follow it. Without the grace of Christ, we would not have the strength to follow the truth even if we did know. That’s why it is the source.
The Mass is also the summit because it gives us the meaning of life. Everything exists for one purpose: to glorify God. We creatures exist so we can love and praise God the creator. In other words, we exist to worship God. Well, the Mass is the greatest worship of God possible on this earth.
It’s amazing and there is so much more that can be said, but misunderstanding this profound reality can lead to some bad habits. One might think, “if the Mass is so great then it’s all I really need to worry about.” A priest who falls into this trap winds up only saying Mass, never interacting with or serving his people in other ways. The laity who fall into this error boil their faith down to going to Mass once a week, or even every day, but never doing anything else. So, we might have a source and a summit, but, sooner or later, it leaves us hollow because there is nothing in between.
And that’s why, in order to really get the most out of Mass, we have to pay attention to the middle, to everything happens between each Mass. Doing the liturgy well impacts our whole lives. A small example from my own life: All the way through college, I couldn’t sing to save my life; It was bad! In seminary, though, I realized the importance of praising God as best you could at Mass. I would listen in Mass (source) and try my best to offer my own voice to God (summit). In between, though, I decided to get better. I tried out for choir 4 times over two years before I finally got in. By using the time between Masses, I got better at singing God’s praise. Now, I not only feel more comfortable singing, I enjoy it and get more out of Mass. I’m also now more able and willing to sing along and have fun in other occasions too. Striving to do Mass well in this one way made life a little richer overall.
Our lives, like our voices, should glorify God. By recognizing Mass as the source of our supernatural life, we learn to see our life as a gift from God. By recognizing it as the summit, we learn the meaning of life and are motivated to live a good life. This moves Mass from being a 1 hour inconvenience each week to being an anchor and guiding star for our lives, enriching daily life and giving meaning even to the small things.
We can boil it down to this basic pattern: You come to Mass as a source of grace and guidance. Then you go out and live your life: thoughts and prayers, fun and work, joys and struggles. When you come back to Mass, you bring all that living, all that middle stuff with you. When we get to the part of the Mass where we take a collection and bring up the gifts, present it all to God. Imagine bundling up the last week and putting it with the bread and wine being put on the altar. Then, when the priest consecrates them, he consecrates your whole life to God; That is the supreme act of worship! This not only gives us a better way to participate at Mass, but gives us motivation to live better lives to make a better offering to God. This helps us find meaning and value in even the most trivial parts of life and, thanks to the transforming power of the Cross, especially in the hardest and most painful parts. Mass makes life meaningful and praise God for that!
– In Christ,
Fr. Albert