Who do we think we are?

A People who go to Mass!

Many of us will remember that we were taught that we had to go to Mass on Sundays.  It was a strict law of the Church and it was considered a sin if we deliberately did not go!

Going to Mass really is central to being a Catholic.  It is not really about a law of the Church but about the words of Christ: “Do this in memory of me”.  That is what we do at Mass.

Going to Mass is also about the fact that we are not just individual believers in the Lord Jesus but we are a People whom he gathers around himself and whom he draws into unity with himself – we saw something of this in last week’s contribution to these small articles on the Church as the body of Christ.

It is at Mass that we come together to enter into those things which keep joining us to Christ: his word, his Eucharist, his assembled People, those who minister his presence to us.  We are all becoming Christians all through our lives, we are in that process of change and development.  It will not be complete until we are ‘with the Lord’.  Our contacts with the Lord develop that process.

The crucial thing about being Christian – and I think that this will be shown to be more and more true in our secular times – is being linked to Christ, constantly listening to Christ in our own situation, constantly entering into communion with him. 

It is not so easy to be a Christian these days.  We are often considered as irrelevant or odd or even worse by some of the people around us.  It is, therefore, even more important that we come together to be reinforced in our faith and following of Jesus, to know that we are not alone on this journey.  The Mass is where we are together and where we can strengthen and encourage each other.

This also means that we have to develop our Sunday Eucharist and make them significant and faith-affirming in the lives of God’s People.  This needs formation for both our priests and our people.  This is something which Pope Francis is strongly encouraging in his recent document on Liturgical Formation, called ‘Desiderio desideravi’. 

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin

Published: 4 October 2024