Drawn day by day into union with God.
Image provided by Annie Theby on Unsplash
WRITTEN BY:
Alex Bailey
READ TIME:
4 mins
Are you a silent spectator at Mass?
Situated in the parish pew, the words of the Mass words seem to pass you by - like reading a paragraph of a novel only to arrive at the end without even the slightest comprehension of the text. The rote responses depart your mouth lacking intention and intonation while your thoughts wander listless and unchecked into the day ahead. Inactively standing, sitting, and kneeling, you notice a feeling of tiredness that begins in your limbs and intensifies until you raise your hand to stifle a yawn. Then a toddler’s shrill whining disrupts the empty silence and commands your attention, and you watch, amused, as the parents exchange anxious glances. It looks as if it will be the father who will remove the child shortly. You hear the familiar bells and cast your eyes up towards the sanctuary.
Perhaps you can identify with some of the experience described above? It’s common, even though as Catholics we are called to, as Vatican II puts it, “fully conscious and active participation” in the Mass. Moreover, Bishop Steve in the diocesan pastoral plan highlights full and active participation in the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life. What is conveyed by the term “fully conscious and active” participation? On the face of it “participation” might bring to mind becoming “involved” in Mass: “involvement” meaning, for many people, taking on the role of reading, or being an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, saying the Prayers of the Faithful, bringing forward the gifts for the offertory, or being an altar server. A more broader understanding should also bring to mind a better understanding of the congregation’s involvement: all of those present at the Mass “take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes.” Nevertheless, not wanting to become merely broad-minded, there is a deeper meaning to uncover.
Covid 19 has at best been an inconvenience to parish life. Periods of lockdown, limited seating capacity, refraining from singing, and the removal of holy water from stoups, among other things, no doubt has caused us to pause for deeper reflection. Should I attend Mass? Can I participate in Mass without being involved as a reader or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion? Can I participate in Mass without song? Given the various restrictions, perhaps what Covid 19 has inadvertently uncovered for us is the importance of an interior life, a life of prayer. While we cannot shake hands at the sign of the peace, we can still enter into full, conscious, and active participation in the Mass. For our participation in the Mass is inherently prayerful.
Father Matthew Gibson writes:
The Holy Mass is the great gift that Jesus left to his Church. It is the worship that Jesus offers to his Father in the Spirit, and it is the worship which he invites us to participate in. In the Mass Jesus takes our humble offerings and unites them to his great saving work of the cross. The protagonist [the “main character”] of the celebration is Jesus Christ, not us. For this reason, active participation means receiving the gift of God, giving thanks for the gift of God, loving God the Father and making an offering of our lives back to the Father with Jesus. What is most important is to be united with Jesus in his praise and worship of the Father. Our participation in the Mass will be fruitful to the degree that we allow him to transform us, because the work of God is that we believe in the Son he has given. Believing in Jesus will make us want to live the same life that he does. [Abridged]
Prayerful participation in the Mass is uniting ourselves to Christ’s offering. Sacrosanctum Concilum from Vatican II further describes participation:
The Church earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration. By offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all. [Abridged]
The challenge for us all is not only to be present but also active and fully conscious in our participation. The anecdote at the beginning of this article describes someone attending Mass distracted and tired with their mind on other things, inwardly noisy. The best antidote for a distracted mind is a particular form of silence.
The priest then invites the people to pray, saying, with hands joined, Let us pray. All pray silently with the priest for a brief time.
