Going to Mass can be boring or fascinating, depending on what you bring to it.
For some, the Mass is a joyless experience: The priest mumbles, the babies cry, your head aches or perhaps all of the above happen at the same time. It makes you wish you had stayed home. When distractions like that pester me, here’s how I cope.
I imagine the whole ceremony as one narrative with a beginning, middle and end. I see the church as the bride of Christ participating in an act of love. United with him, we become one mystical body, and we present ourselves to the Father. For me, entering the inner life of the Trinity is never boring.
In this narrative, I unite with Jesus and the people of God in a mystical union, which I envision through the eyes of faith. Together we offer ourselves to the Father. At the offertory, we bring gifts of bread and wine to express our desire to please God. Then the Divine Lover gives himself right back to us at the consecration.
The bride of Christ surrenders to the Father’s love in a moment of sublime union. When you love someone, you not only love the person in an abstract way, you appreciate being loved. One of the most obvious characteristics of love is that the lovers enjoy being together. Hold that thought throughout the Mass.
Do you have the courage to think this way when you attend holy Mass? It may help you with the way you experience the mystery unfolding before you. Forget the priest, the choir and the sneezing that is going on all around you, and think like the psalmist: “My soul longs for you O God,” (Ps 42:2).
Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical, “God Is Love,” applied this analogy even further. He wrote, “I want my first encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us.”
He explained that God actually woos us. He lures us so that we will leave behind everything that is counterproductive to our union with him.
St. John the beloved disciple said the same thing, “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16).
Pope Benedict also said in his encyclical, “Love is indeed ‘ecstasy,’ not in the sense of a moment of intoxication but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self toward its liberation through self-giving, and thus toward authentic self-discovery.”
Jesus said basically the same thing, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it” (Lk 17:33).
Apply this knowledge the next time you attend Mass. Put aside all the distracting sounds and sights around you and imagine your intimacy with God as a purifying bath in the cleansing waters of Divine Love.
Pope Francis gave us some valuable insights into how we can use this knowledge in our daily lives: “Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey.”
As you leave the church after Mass, keep in mind that you are being sent into the world as an apostle of God’s love. The Holy Spirit will enlighten you along the way.
These words of Blessed Julian of Norwich have helped me: “The greatest honor you can give to Almighty God is to live gladly, joyfully because of the knowledge of his love.”
