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Let us be attentive: Active participation in Mass

  • STEVEN D. GREYDANUS

Receiving fully from the "two tables" of the Mass: A Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter.


HostsPhoto by Eric Mok on Unsplash.

Probably all of us have had the experience of finding ourselves halfway through a meal and realizing that we hadn't been paying attention to what we were eating: how it tasted, how it went down, or even necessarily what it was. Sometimes even with things I gave up for Lent, like my favorite tea, I can easily gulp down without really attending to how good it is. For some reason that usually doesn't happen if I go out to eat. Maybe it's partly because at a restaurant people often ask each other "How's your dinner?" Even if they don't, hopefully the server comes by and asks how everything is.

In Luke's Gospel Jesus tells his disciples that the one seated at table is greater than the one who serves, adding, "I am among you as the one who serves." Our Lord is still among us, even now, as one who serves—and we seated in church have come for what today's Gospel, the Gospel of the two disciples on the Emmaus road, reminds us is a two-course meal, a meal served literally from two tables.

In the Gospel reading there's only one literal table. Jesus is with the two disciples at table when he takes the bread, says the blessing, breaks it, and gives it to them. That table is ... the altar at Mass. The bread we break and eat from the altar is the bread that Jesus broke with his disciples, the bread of life that is his own body; and, just as they recognized him in the breaking of the bread, we recognize our Lord at Mass.

But there's another table in the church, corresponding to the disciples' journey with Jesus as he interpreted Moses, the prophets, and all the Hebrew scriptures for them, showing how the sacred words written centuries earlier pointed forward to the Messiah.

Many of us have wished that St. Luke had given us some examples of the passages Jesus cited and how he interpreted them! But then, much of what Jesus said we probably already know from the many examples of how the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, is interpreted in the books of the New Testament. Take today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, also by St. Luke, from the very first Christian sermon, preached by St. Peter on Pentecost. Peter quotes the following from Psalm 16, a psalm of King David (not coincidentally, today's Responsorial Psalm):

Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.

Perhaps these words were originally inspired by a particular crisis that King David was confident God would get him through. Perhaps the original thought was "God isn't going to let me die here." But Peter's hearers knew about God's promises to King David, and his offspring—promises that would come to final fulfillment in the Messiah.

For instance, God tells King David through the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 7, "You're not going to build me a house ... your offspring will build me a house, and I will establish his kingdom forever." He's talking about David's son, King Solomon, who built the original Temple in Jerusalem. But then God says, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son." Now, he's still talking about Solomon; all the Davidic kings were metaphorically called "sons of God." But then we start asking questions like, "Was Solomon's kingdom established forever?" It seems not! The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple and took the Judeans into exile. So God's people realized that the divine promises to David and Solomon awaited a deeper fulfillment to come. There would be another son of David—a greater son of David; a greater Son of God—whose kingdom truly would last forever.

This is how St. Peter, in the first reading from Acts, interprets Psalm 16. David wrote that God would not abandon his soul to the netherworld or allow his "holy one" to undergo corruption. Is the meaning of these divinely inspired words exhausted by whatever crisis David was going through at the moment? Peter says no. The divine promises made to David and Solomon were true enough for them, but more deeply, ultimately true of the "holy one," Jesus the Christ.

This is how the Hebrew scriptures are interpreted throughout the Gospels, St. Paul, and the rest of the New Testament. In fact, this is how Jesus does it debating with the Pharisees in Matthew 22: "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," the Pharisees answer—and Jesus responds by quoting David writing in Psalm 110: "The Lord [God] said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies beneath your feet.'" Why, Jesus asks, would King David call his own son "my lord"? The Pharisees had no answer for that. They didn't understand that the ultimate son of David would be God's Son in a way much greater than King Solomon.

These are the two tables of the Mass: the table of the word of God and the table of the body and blood of Christ.

This is the kind of interpretation that we can be pretty confident Jesus shared with the two disciples on the Emmaus road. This is the way the Old Testament readings are meant to be understood in Mass as they are proclaimed from the table of the Word of God—the ambo or pulpit. These are the two tables of the Mass: the table of the word of God and the table of the body and blood of Christ. Our meal's first course is sacred scripture, God's holy Word; the second course is our Lord himself, body and blood, humanity and divinity. Two courses, two tables, but one meal, one liturgy. The General Instruction on the Roman Missal says,

The Mass is made up, as it were, of two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. These, however, are so closely interconnected that they form but one single act of worship. For in the Mass the table both of God's word and of Christ's Body is prepared, from which the faithful may be instructed and refreshed.

Do we ever find ourselves halfway through this meal realizing that we haven't paid attention to what our Lord has set before us for our instruction and refreshment? When we hear the acclamation "The Word of the Lord" and reply, "Thanks be to God," are we clear in that moment what it is that we're thankful for? Are we too often late for Mass, perhaps after the readings have begun? Do we follow the verses of the Responsorial Psalm or just wait for the refrain? "Lord, you will show us the path of life," we sang. Do we want to follow that path? In the liturgies of the Eastern Churches the readings may be accompanied by an exhortation from the deacon that we would all do well to proclaim in our own hearts throughout the Mass: "Let us be attentive!"

As the liturgy of the Eucharist begins and the celebrant urges us, "Lift up your hearts," do we? Do we lift them up to the Lord? When we reply "It is right and just," do we give thanks to the Lord our God? As we sing the Sanctus, the "Holy, Holy, Holy," are we aware that we "sing together" with "the heavenly powers and the angelic hosts," in the words of today's Preface?

At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, after the words of the doxology ("Through him, with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever"), does our "Amen"—the "Great Amen," this is called—express, as it should, our assent of faith to the entire Eucharistic Prayer through which we have just knelt? Many of you are aware of the importance of our individual "Amen" when we come up for communion. The minister says, "The Body of Christ," and we respond "Amen"; that is, "I believe—this is, indeed, the Body of Christ!" That's your individual "Amen." But even more important is the "Great Amen," our affirmation that we recognize our Lord, not just in receiving communion, but in the breaking of the bread.

Lord, give us all the grace of "fully conscious and active participation in the liturgy," as is "our right and duty by reason of our baptism" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 14). Let our hearts burn within us for the truth of your Word. Let our hearts plead with you to "stay with us." And may we take with us what we have heard and received, and go out into our world as our Lord goes among us: to serve. Amen.

Let us be attentive!

This is Meaghen Gonzalez, Editor of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.

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Acknowledgement

StevenGreydanusSteven D. Greydanus. "Let us be attentive: Active participation in Mass." Catholic World Report (April 23, 2023).

Reprinted with permission from Catholic World Report.

The Author

Steven D. Greydanus is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, a permanent deacon in the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, and the founder of DecentFilms.com. He has degrees in media arts and religious studies. He and his wife Suzanne have seven children.

Copyright © 2023 Catholic World Report