Look Around

We have all heard the expression "offer it up"-- take what you're worrying about or obsessing over and just give it to God. It's pretty cliche, but it's also super helpful.

Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice, the sinless one in the sinner's stead who took all of humanity's sin upon his spotless self to make satisfaction to the Father for us. In this same way, we can give over our worries and concerns to God. For it is in letting go and letting God that we can take the most effective action. That isn't to say that we must forgo all of our personal agency, but we must have the faith and trust to put anything from our lives in God's hands.

I am really enthralled by the power of the mass in enabling this for us. The bread and wine on the altar are transformed into the Body and Blood before us, so that we might share in the glory and salvation of Christ. So, too, are we invited to put ourselves on the altar so that each time we celebrate the liturgy we can be transformed and conformed more closely to Christ.

On Kairos in high school, for mass, Fr. Van Wiel, a beloved priest from my high school, offered us a cool chance to seize this potential in Christ's mass. He passed around the bowl of unconsecrated hosts and invited each of us to say aloud someone for whom we wished to offer the mass. It was a cool way for each member of the community, the Body of Christ, to state an intention for his/herself and for every one to get a sense of the things their brothers and sisters brought to the Eucharist.

What if during mass, we had the opportunity for everyone to share at least a glimpse of the intentions and burdens and hopes and struggles that we brought into the mass?

This is one of the many ways the depths of the Eucharistic mystery comes alive for me in the mass. I enjoy looking around at the other people gathered and considering the magnitude and quantities of things that they are carrying with them to the mass-- not necessarily playing a guessing game but appreciating the diversity and volume of things brewing within everyone. For as many things as I have in my heart, so, too, do each of these people bring their hopes and concerns to the table.

We all walk up to our Eucharistic ministers together, in community, bringing the concerns that we have prayed over together to the Lord and saying Amen to so much all at once.

Christ is present with us in the Eucharist. Christ is present with us in the Word. Christ is present in we, the Body of Christ, the Church founded by Jesus and led by His Holy Spirit.

And this Amen covers so much more: that we trust the Lord to take those things we have offered to Him on the altar in ourselves; that we will answer the call to support one another in His Church; that we will let Jesus help us in facing and carrying these burdens.

The mass offers us beautiful opportunities to realize and celebrate our faith. Let us remain focused on the Word and Sacrament while not losing sight of all the people walking this same journey together with us.

No Rock-Bottom

Monday at daily mass, the Gospel was a short reading from the short gospel (Mark). The little narrative shares how when Jesus and the disciples came ashore to tie up their boat and disembark, people came swarming in to him with the sick and crippled on their mats, seeking the cures and healing that Jesus could work.

The final line of the Gospel is a really cool concluding thought, one that lets the message from Mark kind of float there in the air for a moment before "The Gospel of the Lord": "[They] begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed" (Mark 6:56).

The power of Jesus was so strong that simply touching Him could cure the sick. Jesus brought so much more than just cures of disease and healing of infirmities, but the practicality of such tangible aid was so appealing to these people.

They did not ask for great truth or knowledge or make Jesus stay with them; they just wanted healing for their friends and family who were afflicted. They could access the awesome power of God just by touching Jesus' cloak.

So, too, for us. Jesus is not walking our streets in His Incarnate human form. But He is with us in the Word and especially in the Eucharist. Our access to God is incredible through Christ.

If we only reach out to get the slightest touch of His cloak, we find healing and peace. The kinds of sickness and affliction of Jesus' time don't exist in exactly the same way today, but the efficacy of Jesus' saving power in His ministry, Passion, death, and Resurrection is the same today. We need only touch the tassel of his cloak--enter into the beginnings of a deeper relationship and faith in Him--to find healing.

From there, we continue to try and journey on deeper, getting a taste of the goodness of God and seeking more of it. And the beauty is that faith in God is the even keel that underwrites all that we do.

Establishing yourself on a solid foundation of faith raises your zero point so much higher. If you imagine your life as a line graph with 0 being the worst of times and 10 being the best, even slight faith in God will block out the bottom-most parts of that graph.

Faith in God through Christ is the foundation for our life being so much better and fuller. As your faith grows and deepens, it's as if the whole section from 0-3 or 0-6 or even more becomes impenetrable because your faith doesn't allow you to dip that low. God brings you the confidence and hope to always remain above that.

Faith and hope in Christ eliminates those kinds of doldrums and transforms your life flow into something that is deeper and steadier, not in the sense of monotony but in strengthening you and steering you clear of severe kinds of despair and hopelessness.

With faith in Christ, rock-bottom gets eliminated. You can only go as low as let go of that faith. Christ is the one who guarantees our happiness through faith in Him, and His gift of hope in salvation and eternal life with God underwrites our lives and fills that upper level of happiness and joy with His love.