12th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023

Last week I told you for the next five weeks, I’d preach a series of homilies I’m calling “It’s a Mystery to Me.” It is a series on the Eucharist and the Mass. As Catholics, we believe the Eucharist is the Real Presence of Christ. We believe through the power of God, simple bread and wine- while retaining their physical appearance- through the priest’s invocation at Mass, turn into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. This belief in Christ’s Real Presence is the sum and summit of our faith.

As a mystery, the Eucharist isn’t a case to be solved by following clues. It is a mystery we can study and learn more about but never completely solve. We can never learn all there is to know about the Eucharist because it is from God, who is immutable or beyond our comprehension.

I’m undertaking this series as part of a Eucharistic Revival sponsored by our bishops. A few years ago, the Pew Center for the Study of Religion in America surveyed Catholics and found only about a third of American Catholics say they believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The majority of Catholics say they believe the Eucharist is only a symbol of Christ, which is more of a Protestant view. In response, the Catholic Bishops of our country initiated this Eucharistic Revival to try to strengthen our Eucharistic culture.

The Eucharistic Revival began last year with an emphasis on diocesan response. We started a parish phase on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi a couple of weeks ago. Next summer, the revival will culminate with a Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. This Eucharistic Congress will be the first in our country in almost eighty years. I’m making preliminary plans to attend and invite you to join me.

There is no denying it; I’m old and getting older. That reality came home to me this winter when I developed serious joint pain and arthritis in my left hip. I like to sleep on my left side, and I began waking up in the middle of the night with pain in that hip. I chalked it up to my mattress being too hard, so I bought a pad to go on top of the foundation to make the mattress softer.

Then I developed pain in my knee. It began after I drove to Fall River for last Holy Week’s Chrism Mass. When I got out of my car after the hour and a half ride my knee began to pain me. It became chronic, so I mentioned it to the nurse practitioner when I went for my semi-annual doctor’s check-up. She printed out several pages of stretching exercises I should do to relieve my joint pain. She encouraged me to stretch my joints more to help alleviate my symptoms. I’ve been doing them, and they work.

Before we begin Mass, we need to do some spiritual “stretching” exercises. Just like we need to stretch before physical training, we must have done spiritual training during the week. If we are to benefit from attending Mass, we need to be people who take time for prayer all week long. We must set aside prayer time to open our souls to God, even if it starts with only a few minutes daily. Find a quiet place, relax, and listen to God. Don’t whine to God about your troubles; listen to what God wants to tell you. Slowly read the scripture readings we will read at Mass this coming Sunday. Ask yourself what they have to offer you as guidance this week. 

Prepare for Mass by looking for ways to practice charity. Look for people and situations where you can use the gifts God has given you to help others. They might be simply being patient in traffic as the Summer crowds arrive. Drawing closer to those in need might be sharing some of our treasure. On Friday, our Diocesan Catholic Appeal comes to an end. Have you shared some of your treasure as a gift to the Appeal to help support our Diocese’s charities and apostolates that share our Catholic faith? Do you take the time to examine your conscience daily and ask God to forgive your sins?

We need to do more spiritual stretching exercises just before Mass begins. We should arrive at church early enough for a few minutes of prayerful recollection before Mass starts. Ensuring we keep the one-hour Eucharistic fast also helps us prepare for a worthy celebration of the Eucharist. It demonstrates our reverence for the Body and Blood of Christ if we are physically hungry to receive it. Being dressed appropriately is another way to ensure we spiritually stretch our hearts to receive Christ into our bodies.

We aren’t done spiritually warming ourselves up when the Mass begins. A continued warm-up is part of the beginning of Mass. It is called the Introductory Rites. The Introductory Rites include the Entrance Song, Greeting, Penitential Act, Gloria, and Opening Prayer or Collect. I’ll touch on each of these Mass parts, and as I do, ask yourself where you are being stirred or stretched spiritually to come into worship and, if you’re not, what needs to be done.

Music and singing are always hot-button issues for a parish. There is such a difference of opinion regarding music. Some people like the old classics, while others want more contemporary tunes. Some like organ music, while others prefer other instruments. Regardless, we need to overcome our preferences and join in the singing.

Did you know that the word “sing” is one of the most common words in the Bible? When the Israelites were safely on the other side of the Red Sea, the first thing they did was sing. When David returned from slaying Goliath, the women broke into song. All the people sang as David led the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. At the end of the Last Supper, Jesus and His disciples sang Psalms. We don’t have to be the best singers to join the Opening Hymn. All of us need to share the voices God gave us. No matter the quality of our voices, we all turn to a song when we are happy. So, we need to stretch ourselves and at least move our lips.

The congregation stands during the opening hymn as the priest and servers approach the altar as a sign we are all part of the procession. All of us are walking toward the altar, even if we don’t move from our pews. Symbolically, all of us are processing up to Heaven to witness the Eternal Banquet.

Once the priest has venerated the altar, he greets the people. Since we are a parish in a resort community, I like to extend the greeting. Here at Holy Redeemer, we have visitors almost every weekend. So, I want to make a special effort to gather everyone into the community.

When I’ve finished that, I go to the chair and make a more formal greeting. I greet everyone not by saying something like “Hey there, Bros”, but by making the Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross is a short statement of what we believe. It acknowledges the three persons of the one triune God and the cross as our sign of redemption or the price tag God is willing to pay for our freedom from sin.

Then the priest says another greeting, “The Lord be with you” or a variation of it. It is important because it is the same expression the angels often use in scripture when God wants to commission someone to do an important mission for God. The angel used it to greet Gideon in the Book of Judges. The angel Gabriel used it when he visited Mary and asked her to become the Mother of our Redeemer. Paul uses it as a greeting in his letters. The priest says, “The Lord be with you” four times in the Mass. He always says it when something important is about to happen in the Mass. He says it as a sort of “Hey, heads up,” pay attention. Something important is about to happen.

Next comes the Penitential Act. It takes several different forms. I like to lead you in reciting the Confiteor, the longer prayer of repentance, during Advent and Lent. During most of the rest of the year, we usually repeat the three invocations of Jesus’ mercy. The purpose of the Penitential Rite isn’t supposed to be the time to beat up on ourselves because we have sinned. As Paul told the Romans in today’s reading, it is a time to rejoice in God’s mercy and acknowledge Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to free us from sin.

After the Penitential Rite, we get swept up in the Gloria, the song of the angels. We should recognize the Gloria as coming from Luke’s gospel. We should recall it as part of Luke’s story about Jesus’ birth. It is the song the angels sang to the shepherds in the fields on the night of Jesus’ birth. The song encouraged the shepherds to go to Bethlehem and worship God made incarnate. We sing it today to prompt us to do the same thing. It is part of the Mass where God wants to stir us to come and give thanks that our God has again returned to earth whenever we celebrate Mass.

The Introductory Rites conclude with the Opening Prayer. We also call it the Collect. The purpose of the Collect is to allow everyone to collect their prayers with those of everyone else assembled at Mass. That is why the priest stops to offer a few moments of silence before he begins to read the Opening Prayer, specifically written for today. You might have noticed today’s prayer encouraged us to revere and love God’s holy name and thank God for His guidance to those set firm on the foundation of God’s love. After all that, we finally get to sit down.

The Introductory Rites, as I said, are our warm-up exercises. They call us to open ourselves to celebrate God’s goodness to us. The Introductory Rites call us all together, whether we are regular or seasonal parishioners of Holy Redeemer or just passing through. They call us all, whatever our background, to become a community of faith, even if only for an hour. The Introductory Rites help us thank God for wanting a loving relationship with us and help us grow that relationship.

So, today I ask you to think about what part of the Introductory Rites most stirs you to want to get closer to God. Next week when you come to Mass, what part of them will you see with fresh eyes? How will you use the Introductory Rites to stretch your heart to be more open to God’s love and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist?