For the past two weeks, I have been discussing my vision for St. Mary’s Parish. This vision is summarized as follows:
Our vision of St. Mary’s Parish is to celebrate the Eucharist on Sunday in a manner that it will sustain and energize all we do as a community of Catholic believers. The way in which we worship will inspire and be central to (1) our spiritual life, (2) our commitment to life-long education in the faith, (3) our Christian outreach to others, (4) our evangelization of those who have not heard the Gospel or fallen away from it, and (5) our commitment to support the infrastructures that will enable us to carry out our mission.
The central element of this vision statement is our celebration of the Eucharist. There is nothing more important than what we do on Sunday when, as a community of believers, we celebrate the Eucharist. At that moment the church comes to life at St. Mary’s in Simsbury. At that moment we assemble as a worshipping community that offers perfect praise to God the Father through his Son Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The old question, “Why do I have to go to Mass,” misses the point. We don’t go to Mass because we have to. We assemble as the community of the church because there is nothing more vital, nothing more important than our worship of the Father through his Son Jesus Christ. At Mass we are united with each other in Christ. At Mass we are most fully what we ought to be. At Mass we participate in the Body and Blood of the crucified and risen Lord. And when we do, we become more perfectly conformed to Christ. We become more perfectly Christ-like. We enjoy the beginning of resurrection life.
The question is not “why do I have to go to Mass.” The question is “why would I ever absent myself from this worshiping community in which the living Christ is present to us?
If our Sunday worship in Christ is the most important thing we do, several consequences flow from this. First, our spiritual life grows out of our Sunday worship. Our celebration of the Eucharist enables us to live the Christian life. Put another way, a spiritual life that is not centered on the Eucharist will be deficient.
Second, if we enter into the mystery of the Eucharist week after week, we soon discover the need to grow in our understanding of the mystery we celebrate. Our education in the faith becomes a life-long process, something we want to do, not something we have to do. An appreciation of the Eucharist teaches us that catechesis is not just for children; it is for every person of the parish at every stage of life: young adulthood, middle age, old age.
Third, our celebration of the Eucharist ought to lead us to reach out to others, especially those less fortunate than ourselves. We must not celebrate the Eucharist week after week, and neglect the needs of others
Fourth, our celebration of the Eucharist should lead us to proclaim the gospel to others, especially to those who have left our Eucharistic community. The command that Jesus gives us is to preach the gospel to all nations. The final words of the Mass are “Go forth and preach the good news.” Worship, then, ought to lead us to bring the gospel to other so that they can share in the Eucharist that gives us such life.
Finally, every Eucharistic community needs the proper space and place to worship and carry out its mission. For a new worshipping community, this means building the proper space. For an older established community like our own, this means reassessing our needs for space and place. What kind of space and place do we need if we are to fulfill our mission to celebrate, to educate ourselves, to serve the needs of others, and to preach the gospel to the world? Everything begins with Eucharist. When we understand what we are doing on Sunday, everything else (spirituality, education, outreach, evangelization, space and place) flows from this. It is my hope that our Parish Retreat Meeting on June 15th will be able to flesh out the vision I have been discussing these past three weeks by proposing concrete ways in which we can make this vision a reality for our parish. Fr. Matera