“It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass.” – St. Padre Pio
 
Have you ever noticed that as a people, we sometimes tend to turn off everything that makes us human just as we enter Church on Sunday? All we have to do is look around to see the lack of smiling faces to see the truth in this statement. Often I see people I look up to with “downcast faces” or upset if someone dares to sit next to them. I don’t say this accusatory, as I can be just as much to blame, but to help open our hearts to what Sunday worship really is.
 
I believe this stoic attitude during the Sunday liturgy stems from two things: a lack of understanding of this community prayer and a misguided belief that prayer is not emotional. I’d like to start with the second point. As human beings, we are emotional, physical, and spiritual people. However, often when it comes to our relationship with God we think we have to turn off the emotional and physical to only be spiritual. It is no wonder then that many Catholics struggle to build a close
intimate relationship with our God and Savior. After all, how many close relationships do you have in your life that are devoid of all emotions? The Mass can be a time to laugh with God or smile as we are so blessed to worship with the Angels and receive the very Body and Blood of Christ! We can also praise God using our physical bodies as well. Consider this, if we dare see someone worship with their hands raised in praise, or even dancing to the hymns, do we peg them as “different” instead of a physical human being who is simply expressing themselves in prayer?
 
The second problem with Sunday indifference is the incorrect belief that Sunday Mass is a private prayer. This is NOT what the Church teaches; it is what we mistakenly believe. Of course the Mass includes time for private prayer. In fact, many moms and dads may find this is the only time for quiet prayer with the Lord that they can carve out during the week. This isn’t the problem. The problem is when we identify the Mass as a private prayer.
 
Think about it, why would it be a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday if it is only about me and Jesus? In the Jewish synagogue, gathering together was always an essential aspect of their prayer life. It was not their private prayer life, but when they came together to encourage one another. You don’t have to read long in Acts to discover the early Church already continuing this practice as they gathered together in each other’s houses to break bread and hear the Word of the Lord. This should also change the way we treat one another as we gather together every Sunday.
 
So what does it mean that the Mass is not a private prayer? It means that the Mass is ultimately, a communal prayer. It means that we are missing a part of our community if you or I are missing. It means we are meant to be offering this Sacrifice of the Mass together. It isn’t Trisha’s sacrifice, Fr. Dave’s sacrifice, Joanne’s sacrifice...it is ONE sacrifice.
 
Ultimately, this reminds us that we are not our own; we need one another. We need that crying baby during the Gospel who is praising God in her own way. We need that person who appears underdressed to us, but may be struggling far more than we realize or wearing the nicest clothes they own. We need people to sit close to us, as we do to our own family, remembering our Church family and making room for our parish to grow. I need you and you need me. We need to pray for one another. Smile at one another. Greet the visitor, comfort the outcast, feed the hungry (spiritually or physically). These are all acts of mercy, easy to live if we only remember to live the prayer of the Mass as a community, and not as individuals.
 
After all, this is not MY Mass, or YOUR Mass, it is the Mass of Jesus Christ. The Mass where His FAMILY gathers together as one to love one another and serve the Lord. It is the Mass for the broken. As Pope Francis has said, the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints. It is OUR Mass.
 
We are our brother’s keeper, but if we don’t even know the names of the people sitting beside us, how are we to encourage and pray for one another? This is a challenge issued to myself just as much as to one another. We all fail in some way to be a true community. But failure doesn't make us weak, it makes us strong if we remember to trust in the Lord. Because the Lord is OUR Father, and He will make us strong.