Our focus this week is the role that we, as an assembly play in the Mass. Every liturgical celebration that is celebrated is an action of Christ and of the whole Church. During a celebration of the Mass, or of any liturgy, there are ministers who may seem to be doing the ‘work’. While it is true that some within the community have specific duties to perform, the liturgy is celebrated by everyone present, according to their respective roles.
We, the assembly or community participate in every moment of the liturgical celebration. Sometimes we may think of our participation in the Mass as ‘just’ singing the hymns or saying the responses, but we are doing much more than that. First, we offer thanksgiving and sacrifice to God, primarily by joining our prayers to those of the priest, but also by our self-offering through our individual prayers. Second, we unite ourselves to each other through the gestures, responses, and acclamations that belong to the assembly.
When we speak of our Sunday Obligation, we think first of our obligation to God. The Third Commandment tells us to keep the Lord’s Day holy. During the early times, the Jewish people kept the Sabbath (Saturday) as a holy day to worship God. After the Resurrection, early Christians began observing Sunday as the Sabbath, a practice which continues until today. Our Sunday obligation is an obligation to celebrate the Eucharist as a sign of our faithfulness to Christ and to His Church.
Since a liturgical celebration is the action of the whole Church, we, as an assembly also have an obligation to each other. An ancient writer wrote that every member of the church community has a responsibility to every other member, to support each other in the liturgy through their prayers and their presence. This secondary obligation in no way replaces or reduces our Sunday obligation. Instead it reinforces the need for all of the baptized to continue, as a community, the saving work begun by Jesus.
In the celebration of the Mass, we join ourselves to Jesus in His Paschal Sacrifice. We also come together in unity and community, so that we may become the one Body of Christ, a witness of salvation to the world. As members of the assembly, we accomplish all of this through our full, conscious, and active participation in every liturgical celebration.
Starting January 2020, the section on ‘Liturgy in our Diocese’ will start explaining the different sections of the Guidelines on the Celebration of Matrimony in the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa.
Thank you and May God Bless Us All.