During the ordination of a permanent deacon in the Roman
Catholic Church the Bishop passes along the Book of the Gospels to the newly
ordained with the following words:
“Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose Herald you have become.
Believe
what you read.
Teach
what you believe.
And
practice what you teach.”
It is a
reminder to all of us that we are also called to believe, live, and pass on our
faith in Christ. There are two types of belief. There is intellectual belief
where you know something in your mind. Then there is an intimate belief where
you know something in your heart. For example; when I had my heart surgery I
knew that there was a chance that I would not live through it. I also knew that
if I didn’t I would be with God and that he would care for my family. I truly
believed this and trusted in God. If surviving the surgery was the worst
outcome how could I be afraid? This gave me a great deal of peace going into
the surgery. If I only believed this in my head I would have been filled with
anxiety and worry.
This is known as making the twelve inch drop – dropping belief
from your head to your heart.
Every day people leave the Catholic faith for another
denomination church, or they walk away from God altogether. The “nones” is one
of the largest growing demographics in the world. The reasons given for this
are vast and varied and usually revolve around a selfish reason.
“I don’t like the music.” “I am not a fan of the priest.” “The sermons are boring.” “I didn’t feel welcomed.”
The ones that bother me most are, “I don’t get anything out of it.” Or, “I wasn’t being spiritually fed.”
As part of our Sunday Mass we stand together and make a profession
of our faith by reciting the Nicene Creed which begins:
“I believe in one God,
the
Father almighty,
maker
of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.”
The Catholic
Mass is much more than a simple worship service. It is more than the music,
more than the scripture reading. It is more than the Gospel, the homily, the
fellowship, or even the reception of the Holy Eucharist. These are all visible parts of the Mass. But the Mass is so much more than just the
visible.
Some Protestants
criticize the Catholic Church because they have the false belief that we “re-sacrifice”
Christ and that Jesus was sacrificed once for all. The Catholic Church uses the
verbiage that she “re-presents” the sacrifice on Calvary. I find it more accurate
to say that the Church “makes present” the one sacrifice to the people today.
We are creatures that live in the visible world. Most of us have neither the
thought nor care for the invisible reality happening around us. Our intellectual
belief knows that we are surrounded by the spiritual, angels, demons, and God
but rarely do we embrace this with intimate belief.
What the
Catholic Mass does is act as a conduit between space and time. Our time, our
reality is joined with all times at the one and only sacrifice Jesus made for
all. In our visible reality we see the priest elevating the host at consecration.
In the invisible reality, in that very spot stands the cross and our Lord
hanging upon it. As we look upon the visible priest we are actually looking
upon the invisible Jesus made present to us.
In our
visible reality we are surrounded by our fellow parishioners. In the invisible
reality we stand before the cross with all of the angels and heavenly host, all
of the Saints in heaven, and every believer who lives, has ever lived, and will
ever live throughout time. We stand with billions upon billions of God’s
creation all worshiping at the one sacrifice of our Lord. Do you miss a person
who has passed? When you attend a Catholic Mass you stand with that person at
the foot of the cross.
In our
visible reality we respond to the consecration with an often groggy or
half-hearted “Amen.” In the invisible reality we are joined to the resounding “Amen”
offered up by billions upon billions of voices at the same time. To open your
heart to this reality will shake you to your core and you will never see Mass
in the same light ever again. The greatest event that will ever happen to
creation is made present to us each and every time we attend a Catholic Mass
anywhere in the world.
In ministry
we are often trying to get people to make that twelve inch drop from the
intellectual knowledge in the head to the intimate knowledge in the heart. With
regards to the reality of the Mass this needs to be a rise of twelve inches. We
must believe in our hearts what is happening around us even though we cannot
see it and allow that to rise to our heads and become intellectual knowledge. I
see because I believe.
I am
Catholic today largely in part to the complete reality the Mass offers. No
other church can offer this reality. When a Catholic walks away from the faith
because they do not feel that they are getting anything out of Mass they never
really believed, intellectually or intimately, anything the professed to begin
with.
