NOT BY OUR OWN MERITS
Holy Mass is the
worship of the Father by His children, "through Christ our Lord."…
Whenever we come to
Mass, we hear a certain phrase repeated again and again. In fact we hear it so
often that its impact on us may be lost. That familiar phrase is, "Through
Christ our Lord," or "Through Jesus Christ our Lord." The
constant use of that phrase should make us mindful of two truths about the
Liturgy.
The first is that
the Mass is not primarily the worship of Jesus, as is a Eucharistic devotion
outside of Mass. Holy
Mass is the worship of the Father by His children, "through Christ our Lord." We are not children of God the Son or of God the Holy Spirit. God the
Father, by the power of His Spirit, has made us His children in the image of
His Divine Son, Jesus Christ. We have been made children of the Father by means
of our baptism, and baptism calls us to celebrate Mass in order to praise and
thank Him. The Mass is not so much looking at the Person of Jesus as it is
looking in the same direction with Him, to the Father.
The second truth
brought out by the phrase, "through Christ our Lord," is the truth
that we never stand alone in life. We are One with Christ. In the Eucharistic
Celebration we come as we are to renew our faith and life, never having to rely
on our own merits. We do not need to be concerned with whether or not what we
do is pleasing to God. Because we pray and worship through Christ Jesus, God looks upon us and sees within us the Person of His Own Son and is
well pleased. Jesus is our Priest and Intercessor
with the Father.
In the Responsorial
Psalm we acclaim, "Here I am Lord; I come to do Your will" (Ps 40:
8a, 9a). And we hear, "...but ears open to obedience You gave me" (Ps
40:6a). Listening is an important part of our prayer life with God on our daily
journey. As I eluted to earlier, we do not rely on our own merit; we come as we
are. It is very helpful to reflect often on the Psalms. They help to bring the
Scripture readings together!
In faith we have
assurance of the teaching in the Letter to the Hebrews, "Jesus is always
able to save those who approach God through Him, since He forever lives to make
intercession for them" (Heb 7:25). Nowhere is this truth more operative
than in our celebration of the Mass, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
On this day
following the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade (1973),
all dioceses of the United States observe this as a Day of Prayer for the legal
Protection of the Unborn Children. Please take some time in prayer giving
thanks to God for the gift of human life, and if you can, go to Mass!