Dear People Whom God Loves,
We must first understand the vision of God that Jesus had. Since we believe that God is incarnate in Jesus, this is the deepest way that we have of understanding God.
Jesus experienced God as Abba. That is the kind of love that a good mommy or daddy has for a little child. Also remember that Abba’s love is far greater than the best mommy or daddy’s love.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father (Abba).” This reminds us that this love of Abba is not just for Jesus but for all of us.
We then reflect on the scripture that tells us that God is love. This goes beyond saying that God loves us. To be God means to be Love. Love does not have body or form. Love is spirit. So God is deeper than a great being or even a supreme being. God is the source of all being. Love is the infinite non-being, the source from which all beings come. Our very existence continually depends on Love. This Love, though other than us, is at the same time around and through and in all of the universe including us humans. This is not to say that Love is in us in the same way that Love is in mountains. While Love is other than us, Love is intimately in us. St. Augustine says that God is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. In theological language, this is called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ life and teaching tells us that Love is compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and healing not just for “good” people but for all. That includes us sinners, non-believers, crippled, diseased (emotionally and physically), all those who are on the margins of society, and those against whom we discriminate.
After his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples that they were to spread this good news to all nations. This was the mission he gave them. This was the early Jesus movement. This gradually became more structured into what we call our church. So the church is not to make up its own mission. Our church is to carry out the mission Jesus gave us.
We carry out that mission more by the way we live than by what we say. Remember St. Francis telling his brothers, “Preach the Gospel at all times and every once in a while, say something.”
How does the Eucharist fit into this picture? The Eucharist is the celebration of the Good News that Jesus brought us. In this celebration, we also receive communion. This provides the nourishment of courage, strength, insight, healing, and humility that we need. In addition to these, we are given the grace of surrender to Love so that Love can transform us to become more like Jesus. It is a slow and difficult journey. As this happens, we will be spreading the Good News by the way that we live. We will be becoming more compassionate, merciful, and inclusive. We will be embracing those on the margins and lose our tendency to discriminate. We will, by word and action, seek justice and peace; and we will be more peaceful within ourselves in the midst of our own internal turmoil and the turmoil of life.
This is the journey. I don’t think that we ever end it until we are embraced by Love in the state we call heaven.
Now, let us look at some of the words and phrases of the Mass. Let us see if they can help us on this journey.
The Lord be with you. When I say this to you, this is what I mean: I wish you the Love that is God and I bow to that Love within you.
And with your spirit. You might be wishing the same for me or something else that is meaningful to you.
Lord have mercy. Since the mercy of Love is always flowing, we don’t have to beg for it. What we do need is to be humble enough to acknowledge that we need mercy and forgiveness. That allows the mercy to work more freely in us. In fact, Love helps us to do our part.
He descended into hell. In Jesus’ time, the word that was used was sheol. That meant the shadowy underworld of those that died. It is a reminder to us that Jesus’ redeeming life and death was also for all people that lived before Jesus.
Incarnate of the Virgin Mary Our belief that God is truly in Jesus and that at the same time, Jesus is a human being. The theological expression is that he has a human nature and a divine nature. We need to remember that our words can never fully describe this or any other mystery. What we need to do is to allow that mystery to transform us and to draw us more and more into the likeness of God. The eastern fathers called this divinization.
Poured out for you and for many Catholic doctrine is that Jesus died for everyone. We will stay true to Catholic doctrine if we understand this as meaning the many people who have lived before us, those that are living now, and those who will live after us.
Lord I am not worthy. This tells us that the gift of Jesus that we receive in communion is a free gift from Love. We don’t have to earn it. We can’t earn it. In this sense, no one is worthy. It is not meant to drive us into judging who is worthy and who is not. We all need the mercy that Love is.
That you should enter under my roof This tells us that Love enters into the depths of our soul. There is nothing superficial about the presence of Love within us.
My soul shall be healed. The presence of Love in the depths of our soul heals the wounds of sin and sometimes other wounds as well.
Go in peace. When I say this, I will be thinking of the Hebrew word shalom.
This word is so rich that it is much more than our word peace. We have no word in English that adequately translates it. I will be wishing you peace, joy, compassion, healing, and divine presence.
In conclusion. All that I have written is from my own experience and perspective. It is neither more or less than that. I hope that it will be helpful.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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