From Abraham to the Mass

By Msgr Michael de Verteuil
Chair of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission

God called Abraham. He called him to go to another land and to become the father of many nations. This was a decisive moment in salvation history—God wanted a people to be His presence in the world and out of whom would come the one who would make all things right, who would restore damaged creation. And this call was the beginning of this people.

God wanted a people—this is the story of Scripture, God calling, fashioning, correcting, loving a people who would glorify His name in the world.

And from Abraham and Sarah came Isaac from whom came Jacob who had 12 sons, the patriarchs, heads of the 12 tribes of Israel.

The people God had chosen went to Egypt out of which Moses led them, Moses a man called by God to lead a people out of slavery to the promised land. On this journey in the desert, God made a covenant with the people (I will be your God, you will be my people): a new movement in the relationship between God and the people.

For this covenanted people, God provided judges and kings, sent prophets to remind them whose they were, prophets who would speak to them God’s Word, forming and teaching them.

And in the fullness of time God brings His Son out of this people, the Word becomes flesh in the womb of a daughter of this people. Jesus, through His perfect obedience, undoes the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and “It is accomplished”, (Jn 19:30), reconciliation with God is effected.

Now God’s choice widens—God’s chosen people expands to include all who believe, all who through the waters of Baptism become part of God’s people, part of the Body of Christ, part of the Church.

St Peter says, “Once you were not a people at all and now you are the People of God” (1 Pt 2:10). A new people but a people with the same mission—to glorify the name of God in the world by loving God and loving neighbour.

It is important to see this work of God because we can easily fall prey to individualism in our spiritual lives and see our faith as purely for personal salvation.

God has called a people to be His in the world—this people is not a random collection like a group of people in a grocery or cinema. This people are the Body of Christ and are most clearly seen when they gather to celebrate the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist.

The Eucharist not only reveals us as God’s people but deepens our unity, binds us more closely together. St Paul says (1 Cor 10:17), “……though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in the one loaf”.

Prayers of the Mass continue this, e.g., Eucharistic Prayer 111: “Grant that we who are nourished by his Body and Blood and filled with the Holy Spirit may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”

And Eucharistic Prayer 11: “Humbly we pray that all of us who partake in the Body and Blood of Christ may be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.” The Eucharist manifests our unity and brings it about.

This is one reason, and a big reason, why it is important to return to church as churches reopen. Let us take part in Sunday Mass to show who we are, to remember who we are, to be nourished by Word and Sacrament and to become more and more who we are—the People of God, a people called to be salt and light, to be the presence of the Lord wherever we are.

Sometimes we may gather into groups or organisations to do good, sometimes we may work as individuals, as families, but all responsible for spreading God’s love, and every week gathering again to show who we are and to be strengthened to make Christ present in the world.