by Rev. Richard Barker
Six times the prayer of the Roman Canon (EP I) and Communion Rite of Mass invokes God’s “peace” upon his Church, the
Body of Christ. Interestingly, Sacred Scripture assigns to the number six the sense of things incomplete, lacking, unfulfilled. The human instinct, however, is to nurture hope that one day goals can be reached, obstacles overcome and peace secured.
In this our own generation, the evidence of decline is everywhere. Exploitation and violence are now mainstream. Compounding this is the problem of will. America’s will to achieve her best has diminished. Paralysis has set in. Many conversations are salted with expressions despair and dread of the future.
In truth, the whole world groans under the weight of human sin. It cries to heaven for help. Try as you might, you can’t avoid suffering altogether in life. You can’t get through your whole life without someone doing you some sort of harm, whether stealing from you, slandering you behind your back, sabotaging you or aggressing you or your loved ones.
You have to think long and hard about this. You have to think long and hard about who you are. You have to think about what sort of person God wants you to be. It’s not enough to avoid evil and remain hidden. You have to step up and do good things that help your community. It means following Jesus. Not just thinking about him but
imitating him.
When you give glory to God in the Mass, is it only Jesus who should be “pure”, “holy” and “spotless”? Is not the Mass, rather, a trumpet sounding, calling you to “think again” about who you are, what you are doing, and the direction of your life? It seems to be a law that if you don’t kneel before God, you will be kneeling before something else. This “something else” is called an
idol. Avoid God, and at the very least, you’ll be idolizing yourself.
Try to understand the meaning of “the good”. “Good” is not just a word signifying approval. “The good” is a person, God. The good is a place, heaven. The good is a thing, the grace of God evident in everything large and small he has created. God was not content simply to make the “things” of the world as if decorating a child’s room. Rather, God went on to give a
reality to all things and situate man at the center of creation.
Most important, God bestowed on the whole world a “serene and kindly countenance”. [
ROMAN MISSAL Eucharistic Prayer I]
This reality is God’s own
will. God wills that the world itself be an image and likeness of his own “serene and kindly countenance”. Thus God who is good made our world to be good. This is why we freely and joyfully celebrate the Mass. This is why the Mass will always be relevant. This is why we must see God’s world as good and celebrate it. Undeniably, there’s a human dimension to faith, love and hope. If we stop believing in “the good”, if we stop believing in the goodness of God’s world, our human hope will vanish. The light in our hearts will gutter and extinguish.
God gives every human being a share of the world’s goodness. He wants you to care for the measure good entrusted he entrusted to you. He wants you to grow the good you are given by sharing it lavishly with others. God wants everyone to see the “serene and kindly countenance” of reality itself, that is to say, God’s own face and the world he created. When it comes to goodness, we’re all farmers who work for a harvest and care for the “land of milk and honey” we possess. [Num 14:8]
God wants our minds and hearts to be serene and kindly, filled with the peace which only Jesus can give. There’s no doubt that “surpassing peace” is the fruit of wisdom. And wisdom means this: Surrender your heart, mind, soul and strength to loving God
extravagantly. Moreover, learn what it means to love yourself as you
should love your neighbor. This is what is called “the good”.
Stop treating people as worthless. Speak kindly and always truthfully. Never act toward others in ways that are dismissive, disrespectful, disgraceful. Can we not agree, you and I, that our Lord Jesus is the true form of goodness? Can we not agree that Jesus is the origin of all we know and understand as “the good”? [cf Heb 10:1] If this is what’s real, you will do well to follow him faithfully. Do not misunderstand, however, what “follow him” means. To
follow Jesus means nothing less than this,
to imitate Jesus and to go
where he leads.
Now the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the “morning star” that shines over all that is good in the world, reveals what imitating Jesus must mean. Jesus made himself to be a victim for us, not by making himself evil to please evil men, but rather as the
ROMAN MISSAL’s Eucharistic Prayer I teaches us, “this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim”. To attain the wisdom of God, we must becomes fools in this age. [cf 1Cor 3:18] And so we forgive and forgive, and forgive again, thereby growing stronger in readiness for the glorious Day of the Lord when every person and nation will be called to account.
Therefore, ask God for the “first grace”. [St. Therese of Lisieux] Invoke God’s Holy Spirit to help you. Imitate Jesus our Lord by being
pure in your mind and heart (or as God’s Word says,
soul and body) by being
holy and
spotless on the Lord’s day. There is all manner of evil under the sun. All of it begins with the devil. It will only end when the addictions are thrown off and the devil starves for lack of souls to consume.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, keep this thought as a bright light to drive away shadows. [Cf EP I] Like Abel the just, give good gifts to God and to your neighbor. Like Abraham, sacrifice your own self-interest for the sake of “the good”. And like God’s high priest Melchizedek, offer your very life for the sake of Jesus who “has loved you with an everlasting love” [Jer 31:3], whose
name is above every name. [Phi 2:9] Finally,
MAY YOU be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life. [Phi 2:15-16] +++