I AM surprised that J.K. Creevey (CL 4/4/04) would suggest that the Church should concentrate its efforts on getting people to attend Catholic Charismatic prayer meetings, rather than encouraging them to attend Mass.
This indicates a complete misunderstanding of the importance and centrality of the Mass to our faith.
When we attend Mass we are accepting Jesus’ invitation to join him at the Last Supper. We are present as Jesus teaches his disciples (and us) how to do the Father’s will (Liturgy of the Word).
We see him change bread and wine into his body and blood (the consecration). We share with the disciples in receiving Christ’s body and blood (communion). And we join the disciples as they sing psalms at the end of the meal (closing prayers and recessional hymns).
The Mass is the greatest single event that one can attend during one’s lifetime.
Whether the person attends Mass daily, weekly or once per year, and whether the Mass is in St Peter’s Basilica with the Pope presiding or a parish weekday Mass, the Mass that the person is attending is the greatest single event in his/her life.
During Mass, God speaks to us individually and collectively through the Liturgy of the Word and the prayers of the Mass. Because the infinite God is speaking to us finite human beings, it is possible that each person attending the Mass could hear a different message.
At the consecration, we are witnesses to the greatest of miracles when Christ changes the bread and wine into his own body and blood. It is difficult for our limited human minds to fully appreciate that our infinite and most powerful God would make himself available to us under the appearance of the very humble and everyday substances of bread and wine. This is almost incomprehensible.
Then, when we receive Christ in Holy Communion, he fills us completely with himself, body, blood, soul and divinity.
As Christ fills us so completely with his presence, God embraces us and we can embrace our God with an intimacy greater than the intimate embrace of a husband and wife. God fills us to overflowing with his love if we but open our hearts.
In practising the faith, one may spend hours on a mountain top (or similar place of retreat) praising God the Father for the wonders of his creation, or spend hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament exposed praying to God the Son, or attend many charismatic prayer meetings invoking God the Holy Spirit.
These are all wonderful expressions of one’s faith. Yet, in none of these practices can a person obtain that special intimate union with God that is available when receiving Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity in Holy Communion at Mass.
Battery operated equipment, such as cordless drills or mobile telephones, must be regularly recharged from a source of power.
At baptism, we accept the responsibility to take God’s message and love into the world. How can we carry out this mission to the full if we do not regularly recharge ourselves at the very powerhouse of his love, the Mass?
The Church has a great variety of liturgies designed to mark special occasions or to present seasonal or other messages. These liturgies are designed to be very meaningful to the participants.
However, the Mass must be the most meaningful to God because it is only of the Mass that Christ said ‘Do this in memory of me’.
So, we should be attending Mass, not because we have to, but because we want to. The Mass is and should be the centre of our faith, of our lives.
W.G. CROWLEY
Aspley, Qld
