We gather…

By Msgr Michael de Verteuil

Chair, Liturgical Commission

From the beginning, an identifying mark of Christians was that they gathered—and they continue to do so every Sunday. Why gather?

We gather… to identify ourselves—We are God’s people, the Body of Christ. Look at us gathered in church because only there can we be seen as a body, a people. You cannot identify us as a people when we are at work, at home, in market or grocery, in gym or party. We are the people who believe and who, by our Baptism, have joined this people, this body. We are proud to profess it.

We gather… because Jesus told us, “Do this in memory of me”— What did He do that we are to remember? He gathered His disciples, spoke with them, took bread and wine, blessed and thanked the Father, broke bread and shared His Body and Blood. We are the people who do this in obedience to this command of Jesus. We gather to remember and to do this.

We gather… to be fed with the Word that is life-giving for we do not live on bread alone but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God. In the midst of our gathering, we hear the Word as we listen to the readings and to the homily that follows—the Word that lights our path, that cuts away what is not right within us, that gives us life.

We gather… to be fed by the Body and Blood of Jesus, gift beyond all gifts, treasure inestimable. St Paul tells us (1 Cor 10:16–17) that when we receive the bread and wine, we come into communion with the Body and Blood of Jesus and with one another. We become more like Jesus because we are what we eat and the bonds of communion between us are strengthened. May we who are nourished by His Body and Blood and filled with the Holy Spirit become one body, one spirit in Christ.

We gather… to make memorial of the sacrifice, the total self-giving of Jesus, and to make our self-gift, our sacrifice, to the Father in union with that of Jesus, whose death we recall in this ritual, re-presenting it on the altar on which we place the offering of our lives so that with Christ and through Him and in Him the Father might be glorified. May our sacrifice be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father.

We gather … to celebrate the victory of that greatest of events, the Resurrection. We sing our Glorias and Alleluias, our hymns, as we call to mind the saving Passion of Jesus and His glorious Resurrection. This is our victory meal.

We gather… to say ‘yes’ again to the covenant offered to us by God and sealed in the Blood of the Lamb. “I will be your God; you will be my people”. This is the blood of the new covenant, so when we receive this in Communion, we are accepting afresh the covenant of love, saying ‘yes’ again to our God. (We may not receive the actual cup, but we know that when we receive of either species, consecrated bread or wine, we receive both the Body and Blood of the Lord.)

We gather… to give God thanks and praise. We do well always and everywhere to give God thanks. God is worthy of all our praise and in our prayer, our song, our listening, our silence, we give God the thanks and praise that is God’s due. And we do this as God’s people coming together as one before our God.

We gather… to leave renewed, strengthened by our celebration, and to live in the week ahead all we have celebrated. We go, glorifying the Lord by our lives. And we gather again the following Sunday and every Sunday after that, as long as we can, until we get it perfect at the wedding feast of Heaven.

Blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the Lamb. We gather…but so many of our brothers and sisters do not (and is it possible that at times we skip a gathering or two?).

What can we do to draw them back to the gathering? Are they waiting for an invitation? Are they waiting for celebrations with better hospitality, homilies and hymns?

Do they know all they are missing? Who will tell them?