This Holy Moment

By Msgr Michael de Verteuil, Chair, Liturgical Commission

Human beings are born with a hole in the heart that makes us search for something more. Many try to fill it in different, often damaging, ways but the hole can ultimately only be filled by God.

We know this and many of us, inspired by the Holy Spirit, therefore seek some closer relationship with God. There are different ways of doing this for God is the God who wants to come to us.

Prayer, Scripture, good works, beauty, are all ways in which our relationship with the Lord can be deepened, in which we encounter Someone beyond us.

I will show you a way that is greater, St Paul says in a different context, but I think it is true for what follows.

God always takes the initiative and took the great step of taking flesh and living among us that we might know and have access to God now and forever. The night before He died, Jesus took bread and wine and gave us the lasting supper of His Body and Blood. St Paul tells us (1 Cor 10:15) that as we partake of this meal we come into communion with the Lord, Body and Blood.

Is this not what we want, what our restless souls seek, this intimacy with the Lord? We will never get closer to the Lord on Earth than in receiving Communion. We are receiving, taking into ourselves the very Body and Blood of Jesus. Can there be greater closeness? And yet there are those who say they get nothing out of the Mass!

But there is more to come. Just before we receive Communion, the presider says, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” And truly, we are blessed to receive this holy supper, but the words point us also to a supper to come. They are taken from the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse) 19:9 in which John is having a vision of a huge crowd, and an angel tells him that they are gathering for a great celebration and says, “Blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” This is an image of the full and wonderful unity with the Lord we will come to. Until then, we are called to this foretaste of glory divine—this supper before us in Body and Blood of Jesus. It points us to that time with the Lord when we share in that heavenly wedding feast, symbol of our absolute unity with the Lord, when our hearts will be whole.

Here it is before us in every Mass. We should pray asking God to help us appreciate the Mass and that moment of Communion (one with) the Lord. When we process to receive, let us be conscious of what we are doing, mindful of the words of Jesus, “I have desired with great desire to share this with you” (Lk 22:15). A time of silence after Communion so that all may reflect on the wonder of the moment is a great help.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (exposed or otherwise) can help, for as the Church teaches us, Adoration (and note the word: be careful that it does not turn as a rule solely into supplication) before Mass should lead us to more fervent and deeper celebration of the Mass.

Adoration after Mass can give us the time to ponder and be grateful for what we have celebrated and the Communion we have received.