Thursday, September 16, 2010

What difference does the Mass make?

Nick Wagner, over at "Today's Parish", has compiled a checklist on "The Roman Missal and Liturgical Renewal" which is quite good.  Check out the whole checklist here.  I was particularly struck by the sixth item on the list, which I'm copying here:


"Life in the parish, the neighborhood, and the city is better because we celebrate Mass every Sunday. The ultimate evaluation of the liturgy is how well the values of the gospel are promoted in the world after the liturgy ends. If your community still suffers from homelessness, unemployment, drug or sexual abuse, or other chronic social ills, more must be done to bring the heavenly banquet from the altar to the streets.
  • Preach on the social teaching of the church.
  • Create awareness campaigns on particularly difficult issues surrounding the parish.
  • Practice seeing Jesus in everyone. Start with those who you worship with but do not know. Gradually move toward recognizing Christ in those most different, most frightening, most repulsive to us."
Many have written on this connection between our celebration of the Eucharist and our responsibilities for ministries of charity and justice in the wider community, and it is wonderful to see it included on the checklist.  St. Paul wrote that  is "unworthy" for a Christian community to partake of the Lord's Supper amid division and indifference to the poor (1 Cor 11:17-22, 27-32).  The Catechism summarizes that "to receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren" (#1397).


The Apostle Paul says that it is “unworthy” of a Christian community to partake of the Lord’s Supper amid division and indifference towards the poor (1 Cor 11:17-22, 27-34). Our Catechism (1397) tells us: “To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren”.  John Paul II wrote in 2004 that "the criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations is judged will be our mutual love and in particular our concern for those in need" (Mane Nobiscum, Domine).
So, thanks, Nick, for including this wonderful insight for us all to consider.  And for those of us who are deacons, this can be a particularly appropriate opportunity and challenge since deacons can -- and should -- take the lead in making this connection clear to all.

1 comment:

  1. If your community still suffers from homelessness, unemployment, drug or sexual abuse, or other chronic social ills, more must be done to bring the heavenly banquet from the altar to the streets.


    This line troubles me a bit. As American Catholics have grown increasingly successful, we have abandoned the cities where our grandparents lived and migrated to more affluent suburban communities. We have left it up to others--often government-employed others--to deal with places where all those "chronic social ills" are very evident. The people who live there now, after all, are not Catholic.

    Catholics in the suburban parish, by contrast, more typically suffer from ills that are psychological or, as we often say, spiritual. Our clergy and our lay ministries seem attuned to problems of that type but not so attentive to what is happening in meaner streets far away from our comfort zones.

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