Nineteenth of Year B - Participation in the Mass
August 2009
On Holy Saturday night each year we renew the promises and commitments made on our behalf, when we were Baptised. In the same way each year I too try to revitalise our commitment to participating fully in the Mass. Also there are always new parishioners who are not aware of our efforts at getting the whole congregation to join in the Mass responses.
Today is such a day.
No matter how good and well prepared an event may be, after seeing or hearing it 52 times each year it will begin to pall.
This is always so for the audience but is not true of the actual participants. Participants eg. actors, musicians etc. are fully immersed in the event and are constantly striving to improve it.
That is the problem with our weekly Mass. We are, or slip into being, the audience rather than the participants.
The secret is to become a participant.
Being part of the audience requires very little if any effort. Being a participant demands preparation and effort.
The first line of attack in becoming a participant is the vigorous and intelligent joining in the Mass responses.
Doing this vigorously demands that we remain alert to what is happening.
Doing it intelligently demands understanding of what we are saying and what it is a response to.
This is the only way I know of to begin participating in the Mass.
The first requirement at any event is listening carefully to what is being said. We have merely attended Mass so often that we take it for granted that we know what is being said. Maybe if I become a participant and listen I might find that much of what is being said is new to me and is exactly what I want to say to God my Father.
Keeping your eyes closed most of the time is a big help to participation.
No matter how much I participate in the Mass, no matter how much I desire full participation, there will be days - many days - when I would rather not be at Mass. There will be many days when I cannot work up any enthusiasm whatever. I am so distracted, so upset, so angry that mere physical presence is all that is possible for me.
God created me the way I am. He understands me perfectly. My mere physical presence is a great joy to Him. It is like the visit of a beloved grandchild even if the grandparents can see that its mind and heart are elsewhere.
Its mere presence and the fact that it has come, despite everything, is a delight.