The disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus, “Are you one who is to come? Or shall we look for someone else?” In his answer, Jesus did not point to himself. He responded something like, “The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them.” In other words, the kingdom of God was happening because of him. Jesus did not answer John’s disciples by pointing to himself. He pointed to what was happening among people. They were becoming more whole, more alive, and more one. The focus was on them, and not on himself. The focus was on the kingdom of God.
Foundational to Jesus’s ministry was his proclamation of the kingdom of God. How we describe that kingdom or reign of God is important. We may speak of it is a kingdom of love, generosity, healing, whole-making. We may also speak of it is a kingdom of people empowering one another, a kingdom of companionship, community and belonging.
It was not a kingdom of individualism and individual salvation, often at the expense of others. It was not a kingdom of keeping rules and regulations. It was a kingdom where the focus centered on others and on their well-being.
If this is true, this gives us some insight into the Eucharist. When Jesus proclaimed, “This is my body,” he was not looking at himself, or just at a piece of bread, but he was looking at his disciples and the community of people who were growing into the kingdom of God – because Jesus fed them with his own life and gave of himself.
So just as Jesus was not focused on himself but on the enabling of the kingdom of God, so for those of us who participate in Eucharist, the focus is not on us, but on the gradual growth and emerging of the kingdom of God as we give ourselves.
We become body of Christ to the extent that we are one with Christ, mutually empowering one another and becoming community together. In Eucharist, then, we are celebrating the emergence of the Body of Christ identified with the kingdom of God. It is the emerging Body of Christ which is not yet complete, but still becoming.
We might ask ourselves what we are doing when we come to Mass. When we first enter a church, we sense this place is sacred. Just by being in the church building, we sense the presence of Mystery, the presence of the Holy. We may take some moments in silent prayer to address God within this sacred space, or Christ within the Blessed Sacrament.
We may come to the celebration of Eucharist for many reasons. But our primary reason is to symbolize or ritualize our solidarity with one another in Christ, especially those who attend this Mass and call themselves Catholics. We acknowledge our solidarity and responsibility to empower and accompany one another. We desire to become one people as a sign or sacrament of God’s desire for all humanity and creation on earth.
We come to worship and give thanks to God. Our Mass is a time of worship. For one who might not believe in the existence of God, it would seem foolish to participate in the Mass which is intended to worship and thank God. We marvel at how God inspires cooperation and mutual interdependence at all levels of creation. This happens from the tiniest particles of matter, to the earth’s environment, to the gradual mutual interdependence of all humanity.
Early in the Mass, the people pray together, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory.” In the Preface of the Mass the presider prays, “It is truly right and just that we should in all times and places give you thanks, Almighty God.” At the end of the Preface we pray, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are filled with your glory, Hosanna in the highest.”
We come to hear a word of inspiration, a word of rightness, a word of truth. We hope to find some truth, some word, some idea, some story, from the homily or preaching to give us strength during the upcoming week. We listen to the scripture readings, from the Old Testament, from the New Testament, and from the Gospels, to find guidance, healing and hope to strengthen us in our lives. It is a word meant not only for us individually, but a word of truth that fosters and encourages mutual enablement.
We come to Mass as Body of Christ who, with the Risen Christ, once again in this community, gives ourselves back to God as gift, a gift of unselfish love for the good of others. We do not point to ourselves, but we point our lives toward the growth of the kingdom of God. The consecrated bread and wine becomes not only the Risen Christ or Jesus of Nazareth. It becomes us with Christ, focused on the kingdom of God.
At Mass, we look in anticipation for a prayerful experience before God. We hope that the presider will lead us into deeper prayer, into a deeper sense of the sacred. In the solitude of quiet prayer after communion, we find a deep sense of our solidarity with the whole Christ, with one another and the whole of creation.
At the Eucharist, we recommit ourselves to Christ’s mission of enabling the kingdom of God, a work of empowerment, reconciliation, and healing. We commit ourselves to companioning and solidarity with humanity. We are missionaries fulfilling the mission of Christ. At the end of Mass, we hear the presider command us to go forth to bring the gospel into the world. It is not just a message we bring. It is the work of the kingdom.
In summary, we come to Mass to worship and praise God. The focus is not on ourselves but on the kingdom of God. We come to be inspired by a sacred word of truth that will help sustain us during the upcoming week. We recall that we are one with Christ, invited to share Christ’s work of facilitating the kingdom of God in the world. We accept our mission that reaches out to all creation and does not close itself in upon only ourselves.