Back to Basics 01: Sunday Mass
Welcome to the first talk in a series called Back to Basics. At Mass over the next few weeks I’m to speak about the basic building blocks of Catholic life - the bible, prayer, service of others, confession - and to see how we can use them better to improve our relationship with God and the health of our souls. We’re all familiar with these things, but we can also very easily take them for granted. Let’s try during these first few months of the year to appreciate them more.
So for this first week, I want to speak about the most important thing we do as Catholics - Mass. Mass is at the heart of what it means to be Catholic. We know we must go on Sundays and holy days, and that Mass is also available during the week as well. Going to Mass is the difference between being a practising Catholic and being a lapsed Catholic - no matter what else is going on in our lives. But why is it so important? What’s really going on at Mass? And how can we appreciate it more?
The need to worship
Well, to understand Mass, we must begin with our relationship with God. God loves us and he gave us everything - our very life itself. Our response to that love should obviously be to love him back. But how do we show our love for God? What can we do in our lives that would mean something to God? Well, when it comes to God we show we love him in a unique way: by worshipping him. Only God is worshipped. No matter how much we love someone or something else, only God can be worshipped. And however else we relate to God - by doing good or by appreciating the beautiful world he made - we must also worship him. Anything else isn’t true love.
And it’s God himself who has explained this to us. We find it in the ten commandments where he tells us we must love him above all else and worship him alone. He also tells us how to do it - by keeping the Lord’s day holy. In the Old Testament this meant the sabbath. For Christians, from the apostles onwards, it means Sunday - the day of the resurrection. God commands us that if we love him we must worship him on his day each week, and on the special festivals of the year too, the holy days of obligation.
Ok - but how do we worship him? After all, among Christians there are many different types of Sunday services. There are bible services, charismatic prayer, devotions, revival meetings, sermons and Sunday schools. Some of these can be very beautiful. Some are full of life and fun. They’re all good and they can really life up hearts in prayer. So why don’t we just say to people - do what you want on a Sunday! Worship God however you feel like!
Well the reason that we don’t have many different styles of worship in the Catholic church, is that Jesus himself told us how we should worship on the Lord’s day. In fact, he didn’t just tell us. He showed us on the occasion that he led the apostles in worshipping his Father in heaven. He also gave the apostles the power to continue that worship in just the same way. And lastly, just to make sure that we understood exactly what he wanted us to do he made it as clear as he could - when he said “do this in memory of me.”
The Worship that Jesus asks from us
He was referring to the Eucharist, of course, the Mass. The occasion was the night before he died, when he called the apostles to join with him in the Jewish act of worship, the passover meal. But that night Jesus did something new. He took bread, blessed it and said this is my body and he offered himself to his Father in heaven for the salvation of the world. Later he took a cup of wine, blessed it and said this is my blood which he offered up for the sins of many. Now, the bread and wine didn’t look any different. But they were, by the power of God they were now sacraments of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Then having offered them to the Father, he shared them with his apostles in holy communion. It was the first Mass and from now on God’s people were commanded to do this in memory of him.
And we have done. For two thousand years and counting. Whatever other sins we’ve committed in the Church we have kept faithful to that command. Every day, every hour somewhere in the world, the followers of Jesus are still doing just what he asked, in memory of him. The offering that Jesus made at the Last Supper, and which took place on the cross at Calvary the next day, is renewed every time the Eucharist is celebrated. Wherever Mass takes place, Jesus leads the worship, the love, the sacrifice, and the thanksgiving to his Father in heaven. And when we come and take part, we share in that worship ourselves.
Our attitude to Mass
Now as I said earlier, we’ve all been to Mass so often that we can sometimes take it for granted or even get the wrong idea about it. We can sometimes think that by coming to Mass we’re doing God a favour, and that he better make it worth our while when we get here. If we don’t enjoy it, if we’re bored or disinterested we can be tempted to just give up going. Indeed, nowadays, the majority of Catholics here have done just that - only a quarter of Catholics in our parish come to Mass each week.
But I can’t tell you how wrong that idea is! We go to Mass for God, not the other way round. God doesn’t need to impress us or entertain us when we’re in the Church. He has already done more than enough for us. Every minute, every second of our lives, God is blessing us. He’s filled the world with a million ways of entertaining us. We are, all of us, so blessed in so many ways. So first and foremost, we don’t come to Mass to get something, but rather to show our gratitude for all we have been given. Mass is the hour of the week where we say thank you to God, by giving him our time, our attention, our love and our worship. Indeed, the word Eucharist that we use to describe the sacrament of Mass and Communion means ‘thanksgiving”. That’s why we must come to Mass at least on Sundays and holy days. To miss Mass on the Lord’s days when we could come is to refuse to worship, to return God’s great goodness with cold ingratitude, and to break his commandments. That’s why missing Mass is a sin, a serious sin, and if we’ve done it in the past we need to go to confession.
And if we do find ourselves sometimes bored by Mass, we can learn a lot from those who can’t come as easily as we can. In many parts of the world today people have to risk their lives to get to Mass. Our own ancestors here in Ireland withstood centuries of oppression and persecution because they knew how important Mass was, and they would not give it up for any reward or under any threat. As St John Paul II remarked when he visited Ireland in 1979 “for the Irish, it was the Mass that mattered.” The example of past generations should inspire us to love Mass with the same passion they did.
God gives us back more than we give him
And, the wonderful thing is that although we come to Mass to show our love for God, he won’t let us leave without giving us even greater blessings in return. Every moment of Mass God is blessing us. He speaks to us in his readings, he hears the prayers we make as a community, he let’s us participate in Jesus’ sacrifice in the last supper, he comes to us in Holy Communion, and he sends us forth at the end of Mass, full of grace to share his Good News of love and salvation with others.
I can’t go on too much longer now. But I do want to encourage you to begin this new year with a new appreciation of how important Mass is. This is where we worship God, exactly the way that he commands us too. To come to Mass each weekend is the least we can do in return for God’s love, and it means so much to the Lord that we’re here. Indeed, he blesses us for coming more than we could ever imagine. I’ve put a few bits to read about Mass in the bulletin, and there are some videos on the parish Facebook page this weekend as well. Next Sunday, I’ll continue these talks on the basics of the spiritual life by talking about the bible.
So for this first week, I want to speak about the most important thing we do as Catholics - Mass. Mass is at the heart of what it means to be Catholic. We know we must go on Sundays and holy days, and that Mass is also available during the week as well. Going to Mass is the difference between being a practising Catholic and being a lapsed Catholic - no matter what else is going on in our lives. But why is it so important? What’s really going on at Mass? And how can we appreciate it more?
The need to worship
Well, to understand Mass, we must begin with our relationship with God. God loves us and he gave us everything - our very life itself. Our response to that love should obviously be to love him back. But how do we show our love for God? What can we do in our lives that would mean something to God? Well, when it comes to God we show we love him in a unique way: by worshipping him. Only God is worshipped. No matter how much we love someone or something else, only God can be worshipped. And however else we relate to God - by doing good or by appreciating the beautiful world he made - we must also worship him. Anything else isn’t true love.
And it’s God himself who has explained this to us. We find it in the ten commandments where he tells us we must love him above all else and worship him alone. He also tells us how to do it - by keeping the Lord’s day holy. In the Old Testament this meant the sabbath. For Christians, from the apostles onwards, it means Sunday - the day of the resurrection. God commands us that if we love him we must worship him on his day each week, and on the special festivals of the year too, the holy days of obligation.
Ok - but how do we worship him? After all, among Christians there are many different types of Sunday services. There are bible services, charismatic prayer, devotions, revival meetings, sermons and Sunday schools. Some of these can be very beautiful. Some are full of life and fun. They’re all good and they can really life up hearts in prayer. So why don’t we just say to people - do what you want on a Sunday! Worship God however you feel like!
Well the reason that we don’t have many different styles of worship in the Catholic church, is that Jesus himself told us how we should worship on the Lord’s day. In fact, he didn’t just tell us. He showed us on the occasion that he led the apostles in worshipping his Father in heaven. He also gave the apostles the power to continue that worship in just the same way. And lastly, just to make sure that we understood exactly what he wanted us to do he made it as clear as he could - when he said “do this in memory of me.”
The Worship that Jesus asks from us
He was referring to the Eucharist, of course, the Mass. The occasion was the night before he died, when he called the apostles to join with him in the Jewish act of worship, the passover meal. But that night Jesus did something new. He took bread, blessed it and said this is my body and he offered himself to his Father in heaven for the salvation of the world. Later he took a cup of wine, blessed it and said this is my blood which he offered up for the sins of many. Now, the bread and wine didn’t look any different. But they were, by the power of God they were now sacraments of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Then having offered them to the Father, he shared them with his apostles in holy communion. It was the first Mass and from now on God’s people were commanded to do this in memory of him.
And we have done. For two thousand years and counting. Whatever other sins we’ve committed in the Church we have kept faithful to that command. Every day, every hour somewhere in the world, the followers of Jesus are still doing just what he asked, in memory of him. The offering that Jesus made at the Last Supper, and which took place on the cross at Calvary the next day, is renewed every time the Eucharist is celebrated. Wherever Mass takes place, Jesus leads the worship, the love, the sacrifice, and the thanksgiving to his Father in heaven. And when we come and take part, we share in that worship ourselves.
Our attitude to Mass
Now as I said earlier, we’ve all been to Mass so often that we can sometimes take it for granted or even get the wrong idea about it. We can sometimes think that by coming to Mass we’re doing God a favour, and that he better make it worth our while when we get here. If we don’t enjoy it, if we’re bored or disinterested we can be tempted to just give up going. Indeed, nowadays, the majority of Catholics here have done just that - only a quarter of Catholics in our parish come to Mass each week.
But I can’t tell you how wrong that idea is! We go to Mass for God, not the other way round. God doesn’t need to impress us or entertain us when we’re in the Church. He has already done more than enough for us. Every minute, every second of our lives, God is blessing us. He’s filled the world with a million ways of entertaining us. We are, all of us, so blessed in so many ways. So first and foremost, we don’t come to Mass to get something, but rather to show our gratitude for all we have been given. Mass is the hour of the week where we say thank you to God, by giving him our time, our attention, our love and our worship. Indeed, the word Eucharist that we use to describe the sacrament of Mass and Communion means ‘thanksgiving”. That’s why we must come to Mass at least on Sundays and holy days. To miss Mass on the Lord’s days when we could come is to refuse to worship, to return God’s great goodness with cold ingratitude, and to break his commandments. That’s why missing Mass is a sin, a serious sin, and if we’ve done it in the past we need to go to confession.
And if we do find ourselves sometimes bored by Mass, we can learn a lot from those who can’t come as easily as we can. In many parts of the world today people have to risk their lives to get to Mass. Our own ancestors here in Ireland withstood centuries of oppression and persecution because they knew how important Mass was, and they would not give it up for any reward or under any threat. As St John Paul II remarked when he visited Ireland in 1979 “for the Irish, it was the Mass that mattered.” The example of past generations should inspire us to love Mass with the same passion they did.
God gives us back more than we give him
And, the wonderful thing is that although we come to Mass to show our love for God, he won’t let us leave without giving us even greater blessings in return. Every moment of Mass God is blessing us. He speaks to us in his readings, he hears the prayers we make as a community, he let’s us participate in Jesus’ sacrifice in the last supper, he comes to us in Holy Communion, and he sends us forth at the end of Mass, full of grace to share his Good News of love and salvation with others.
I can’t go on too much longer now. But I do want to encourage you to begin this new year with a new appreciation of how important Mass is. This is where we worship God, exactly the way that he commands us too. To come to Mass each weekend is the least we can do in return for God’s love, and it means so much to the Lord that we’re here. Indeed, he blesses us for coming more than we could ever imagine. I’ve put a few bits to read about Mass in the bulletin, and there are some videos on the parish Facebook page this weekend as well. Next Sunday, I’ll continue these talks on the basics of the spiritual life by talking about the bible.
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