How we meet God at Mass

By Msgr. James P. Moroney
Director of the Office for Divine Worship

The littlest child knows that the Mass takes place in God’s house, the church, which has been referred to from its earliest days as the domus Dei: the house of God.
We meet God at Mass in four different ways.
First, God is present in our midst when he gathers us as his Church, for the Lord himself promised us that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
No one gets saved alone. It is only through others that we come to know and love him. First our parents, our teachers and our relatives teach us about the Lord and his Church and help us to grow in his image and likeness. The whole body of the Church prepares us to receive the sacraments and nourishes and strengthens us by their faithful celebration.
We come to know the triune God in relationship as we serve the poor, feed the hungry and welcome the stranger. Even at the moment of our death, we are surrounded by people of faith, praying for us as we pass through a door to the other side, where the communion of saints awaits us.
Second, God is present in the priest, who acts in his person and has, by his reception of the sacrament of ordination, received the power to offer sacramentally the sacrifice of Christ. Indeed, while it may appear that the priest is celebrating the rite and prayer of the Mass, it is really Christ, our great High Priest, who is offering himself upon the altar of the cross for our salvation. It is the priest who celebrates the sacraments with and for us and assures our continuing growth in grace.
Third, God is present at Mass in his word proclaimed, for while our ears hear the voice of lectors, deacons and priests, it is really Christ who is speaking to our hearts when the Scriptures are read in the church. That is why the readings are concluded with the acclamation “The Word of the Lord,” because it is really God speaking to us.
Perhaps when you went to Mass last week you were deeply distraught and afraid that there was no way out of your troubles. Then you needed to hear the words of Jesus inviting you to come to him with your burdens and let him take them upon his shoulders.
Perhaps someone else at Mass last week was caught in a web of selfishness and fear, and needed to hear the Lord challenge him to love his neighbor, forgive his enemy or get out there and help the one who needs him. To each, God speaks the word needed to rouse him. In the word proclaimed we meet the Lord.
Finally, Christ is present substantially in the consecrated bread and wine, his own body and blood, the Eucharist. “For in this sacrament Christ is present in a unique way, whole and entire, God and man, substantially and permanently. This presence of Christ under the species is called ‘real’ not in an exclusive sense, as if the other kinds of presence were not real, but ‘par excellence’” (Eucharisticum mysterium, no. 9).
From the day you made your first Communion, when first the priest held up that host and said, “The Body of Christ,” you have welcomed Christ into your heart and invited him to guide your life. Perhaps nowhere more really do we come to meet the Lord in this life than in holy and living sacrifice which is the bread of angels and the food which brings eternal life in heaven.
So welcome home to Mass! Welcome home to the source and summit of the entire Christian life. Welcome home to a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. Welcome home to the holy and living sacrifice which gives us the strength to live the Christian life.

Review the series:

INTRODUCTION

PART 1