“The Lord is my light and salvation.”
In Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 9:27-31), Jesus restores the sight of a blind man. In some way, we are all blind. We have blind spots. We need the light of faith. We need salvation.
A business owner once spoke to me about the importance of reading C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. There, he describes a planet where people have a much clearer, more penetrating vision and awareness of spiritual realities. We on earth, in contrast, are more often than not blind to spiritual realities and in many cases totally in denial of their existence. We need God’s gift of spiritual sight.
How often have we heard people say that they don’t get anything out of Mass? My response is: “But what do you bring to Mass?” We are called to bring our work and ultimately our very selves to Mass so to worship God through, with, and in Christ!
You are the only one who can give yourself to God. Worship means giving myself to God each and every day. “But I give myself to my work every day!” That’s good, but how do you offer your work to God?
I like to ask young people, “What are the only essential elements without which I cannot celebrate Mass? The bread and wine! The rest we can work out. But without the bread and wine that you must provide, we have no Mass.
Where do the bread and wine come from? “Fruit of the earth and work of human hands”; ‘Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.” These are gifts from God that have been perfected, more fully developed by man’s work.
The Catechism reminds us that God did not create the world in a finished, perfect state. Creation was deliberately left unfinished so that man might become a partner of God in developing that creation. It is man’s work that perfects God’s gifts, perfects the world. In fact, St. John Paul II points out that man’s work also helps man to perfect himself.
Vatican II reintroduced a lost part of the liturgy: the Offertory procession. In the early church, the faithful would bring forward all kinds of produce and animals at the Offertory. It got a little messy, so the Church soon simplified the procession to include only the essential and symbolic items (used by Jesus): Bread and Wine. Later, practical expediency led to eliminating the procession altogether, so that the altar servers, or acolytes, would present the gifts of bread and wine to the celebrant on behalf of the people. And in the offertory procession of Mass, we relive in a more obvious and dramatic way our self-offering to God.
Vatican II’s document on the Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium”, speaks repeatedly about facilitating and encouraging the “participation” of the laity at Mass. Participation is not about being in the choir, or being an usher, or an altar boy, or a lector. It is about living more consciously and deeply in this moment of the offertory. We can and should offer ourselves to God by offering our prayers, joys, and sufferings, but especially our work. On Sunday, we can bring forth all our efforts, blood, sweat, and tears poured out at work over the past week. Again, only we can offer that work to God. In doing so, we offer ourselves—the one gift that God most desires from us!
And what happens to those gifts placed upon the altar? They are soon consecrated and transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus! Our gifts take on a new value. And they are presented to the Father by the Son. Jesus is both the priest and the (victim) offering. So, the Father can only embrace and cherish this gift from the hands of and in the form of his Only Beloved Son! So, my work and even my very self, in some way, reach heaven! Their value has been increased beyond measure; they have entered the realm of eternity!
How important for us to live this mystery! The mystery is finally the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. I, who was not physically present 2000 years ago, am able, in virtue of the Mass, to now be present, to enter in, to offer myself and to join Jesus Christ, the High Priest, in offering his life to the Father! What an honor! What a wonder! I become deliberately, freely, and truly part of this great act of worship, this priceless sacrifice, and this most powerful prayer!
If this is, in fact, what takes place in our Worship, then how must I learn to approach and live my daily work? My attitude, my generous efforts, my attention to details, my honest use of time, my intentionality, and my spirit of excellence… suddenly become inexpressibly important! All week, I have the opportunity to prepare and package my gift to God—in all my prayers, joys, sufferings, and especially in my WORK!
Let us ask for that light of Faith to see the real content of our worship, the very personal ingredients of our offertory, and the deepest desire of God the Father and God the Son, and of course God the Holy Spirit, who is actively working to effect this miracle. Become that gift! In Christ!