By Deacon Jerry Franzen Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption
2 Kings 4:42-44 Ephesians 4: 1-6 John 6: 7-15
Today’s homily will be a bit
different than my usual homily.
Instead of placing the main focus
on the scriptures of today,
I will be focusing on the Mass.
Some people might call this
liturgical preaching.
I will however make
reference to the scriptures of today.
How would you complete the
sentence, “The Mass is …….”?
Three answers might be the
following:
1.The Mass is …….a
sacrifice, the same sacrifice as that on Calvary,
in an unbloody manner.
Christ is both the victim,
the one offered,
and the priest, the one offering the sacrifice.
Fr. Maher here stands in for
Christ.
All of the baptized share in
the priesthood of Christ.
And one way we can do that
is by joining Fr. Maher
in also offering the Divine Victim, Christ, to God
and by offering our lives as well to God in the
Mass.
2. The Mass is …………a meal;
the Last Supper is made
present again for us in each Mass.
We receive the Body and
Blood of Jesus
just as the apostles
did at the Last Supper.
This is our spiritual
nourishment to lead us to eternal life.
3. The Mass is …………..the
greatest prayer that we have!
I believe that we have lost
the concept of the Mass as a prayer.
I dare say that few of us
come to Mass prepared to “pray” the Mass.
We come to receive Jesus in
Holy Communion;
We come to hear God’s Word
and an engaging homily.
We come to gather as the
Body of Christ.
We don’t come prepared to
“pray” the Mass. More about that later.
I
It is important that we know
what we are doing,
especially when it comes to liturgy.
For those of you who have
wished that you would hear
more about the
Mass in homilies,
your wish is about to be granted.
There are some
obvious similarities
between today’s gospel and the Mass.
A crowd had
gathered.
They gathered to be with Jesus.
They gathered because of what
Jesus had done.
We heard in the
last line of the Gospel reading last Sunday
that, after Jesus disembarked, he
taught them many things.
That was in St.
Mark’s Gospel,
and the feeding of the five thousand is what
occurred next
in Mark’s Gospel.
It so happens
that today’s version of the feeding of the five thousand is from the Gospel according to St. John.
There was a
meal, not an ordinary meal, but a miraculous meal.
After the people had partaken of this
miraculous meal,
they believed in
Jesus.
More than that,
they wanted to carry him off as a king.
In the Mass, we
too are a crowd gathered to be taught by Jesus
and to be with Jesus,
1.
Jesus in the Word,
2.
Jesus in the person of the priest,
3.
Jesus in his flesh broken and blood poured out for us
AND 4. Jesus in
the people assembled as the Body of Christ.
We gather to be taught
by Jesus and to be with Jesus
because we too know what he has done.
We partake of
the miraculous meal,
and our “Amen”,
both at the
end of the Eucharistic Prayer
and when we receive Holy Communion means,
“Yes, I believe.”
We are dismissed
to carry, Jesus, our Messiah, our King,
out to others.
The Gospel story
began with the crowd gathering, coming together.
The Church says
that the very first thing we must do is to gather,
but
not as a group of disconnected individuals
who happen to be in one church building.
St. Paul did not
describe the Ephesians and us
as a collection of independents;
in the second
reading he said “one body and one Spirit...
the one hope of your call.”
In his first
letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 12),
he
described us gathered as the Body of Christ,
intimately connected to one another,
each
one dependent on the others.
Prior to the
Second Vatican Council,
the Church had become a “God and me” Church,
God and the priest in the realm of Latin,
God and
each individual in the pews,
saying the rosary, praying from a
prayer book,
meditating on the statues and
windows, day dreaming...
We have returned
to being a “God and us” Church.
It’s not just a
matter of being together
in the right place at the right time.
We encounter
Jesus as the gathered Body of Christ,
truly
dependent upon one another,
AND
we should prepare for that before Mass.
II
1. Timing is important.
Those who arrive at the last
minute, or worse yet late,
have no time
to get settled into their dependence
on those around them
and into their support of those
round them.
We must come to
church seeking to give and receive
care and support.
What signal are
we giving to God and others
when we arrive at the last minute or arrive late?
The same
question can be asked about those who leave early.
2. Our dress can
be important.
Now, if it’s
just you or me and God, dress may not be important.
But
it’s not just you or me and God.
Each of us is a
member of this worshiping community.
How we dress and
present ourselves to others
can
speak volumes to others
about
how we feel about our place in the community
and
about others in this community.
3. Preparation
for actions at Mass is important.
As a community,
we are silent at times in the Mass.
Today, many are
uncomfortable with silence.
I have a news
flash for many of you.
In those times
when you are silent and the priest is speaking,
you should be PRAYING the Mass along with the
priest.
We all, now hear
this, ALL offer the sacrifice
of the Son to the Father at Mass; not just the
priest.
I have become
aware of that more and more as
I assist priests and the bishop at
Mass.
Notice how many
times when the priest is saying prayers out loud
that he uses the first person plural –
we, us and our.
That is not just
the editorial “we”
where he is really referring only to
himself.
It is a “we,”
meaning “all of us.”
We should be
silently praying those prayers along with the priest.
We do that by
listening to what he says and thinking those prayers,
making
them our prayers also.
As a community
we praise God in the prayer of song.
It’s not meant to be optional, only
for the vocally gifted.
Prepare to pray
in song with the formation of an attitude
that your participation in the singing
is necessary,
not
just for you,
but
also for your brothers and sisters around you.
I know that I
sing better when I am singing with a group.
Tuesday evening
I heard a presentation by John Michael Talbot,
a popular Catholic author, composer
and
performer of Christian music.
He said that
Catholics are terrible singers,
not that we can’t carry the tune.
We don’t have
the corner on that market;
we are terrible because we don’t sing. So, sing! And pray!
As a community,
we respond aloud in prayer at certain times;
it’s not optional.
It’s required
that we be together, in sync,
with the rest of the community.
Prepare for Mass
with the formation of an attitude that
to be a member of the Body of Christ,
you
must speak and sing as a member
of the Body of Christ.
When I am
assisting at a wedding or a funeral,
and the priest says “The Lord be with
you.”
and
I can’t hear many people say “And with your spirit.”
I feel lonely.
As a community
we listen to God’s Word and the homily.
You can prepare
by reading the scriptures ahead of time.
Google USCCB and
go to Daily Readings.
Click on the Sunday
date in the calendar
and “Voila!” you can read the scriptures
for the day .
Familiarity with
the readings will help you
with listening to the readings and to the
homily.
III
Prepare to be an
example of a full active participant in the Mass,
an example that will help to support
others
in their full and active participation.
We must be here
not just for ourselves
not just because we have to in order
to avoid serious sin.
We must also be
here because we are members of this community
to be support for others and to have each
others’ support us.
We are each here
to also foster our personal relationship with Jesus.
John Michael
Talbot would say “WOW.
Our God is right
here with us.”
If we truly
recognize that we are preparing for
the miraculous meal in which we meet
and receive Jesus,
there should be no doubt
about the importance
of the need for the
preparation.
to
the words the “Body of Christ" at Holy Communion,
we are saying “Yes, I believe.”
to three implications:
“Yes, I
believe that the host is the Body of Christ;
Yes, I believe that I become
the Body of Christ;
AND Yes I believe that we are
the Body of Christ.”
We must live and
worship not as individuals,
but
as a gathered and interconnected community,
truly supporting one another as the
Body of Christ,
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