Go and Do What?

BY DAVID O’BRIEN

At the end of Mass, the priest or deacon dismisses us with the words: "Ite, missa est", or as we are used to hearing "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord (and one another)." These words are as much a dismissal as a commissioning to live what we have received in Holy Communion.

We get the English word "mass" from the Latin "missa" which means "to be sent", implying that we are being given a mission every week at church. (CCC #1332)

Each Sunday we gather to worship, acknowledge our sinfulness, hear God’s word, join our lives to the sacrifice of the Lord on the altar, seek peace with one another and receive the Body and Blood of Christ. To all this we respond "Amen, so be it" and the Church says to us: "Good. Now get out of here and bring God’s love to a world so desperately in need of it."

This mission is made even more obvious with the new phrases to be introduced in Advent with the New Roman Missal. "Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord," and "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life."

So, if our mission is to announce the Gospel, what does that mean concretely?

When Jesus explained what it meant to live His gospel message, He said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, freedom to those in bondage, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed and a year of favor from the Lord." (Lk 4:18-19)

According to Jesus then, announcing the gospel has something to do with how we choose to live together in the world. The mission goes beyond our personal spiritual growth and learning church teaching. It even exceeds what goes on at our parishes. It is about living like Christ and bringing His priorities to society.

This is the hardest part of our faith, taking Jesus seriously and actually doing what He says in the real world. It is much easier to focus on our own relationship with God or to invest our efforts into learning about the faith. But, as good as those things are, the Church doesn’t let us get away with stopping there.

Every Sunday we are reminded that the Gospel drives us beyond ourselves, our families and our personal concerns. To receive Christ on Sunday is to join Him in His mission.

"Go", we are told. The mission is out there.

From biblical times until today, this has been our magnifi cent Catholic worldview.

In the 4th century, St. John Chrysostom wrote: "Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked."

Pope Benedict XVI insisted that "a Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented" (Deus Caritas Est, #14). He adds that this "food of truth demands that we denounce inhumane situations" such as violence, poverty, inequality and exploitation (Sacramentum Caritatis, #90).

Pope John Paul II, who calls the Mass "the school of active love for neighbor" (Dominicae Cenae, #6), said the Eucharist "increases, rather than lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today".

Our Sunday worship is where we practice living as God intended from the beginning. We partner with creation- water, fi re, bread, wine, candles, flowers, ashes, etc.-in praise and worship of the Almighty. We are one family in Christ, responsible to and for one another -black, white, Asian, Hispanic, seniors, children, singles, married, conservative, liberal, well off and those living on government assistance. And we give glory to God, our Father and creator, from whom all good things come.

Mass is like a dress rehearsal for heaven because it calls us to build "a world fully in harmony with God’s plan" (JPII, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, #20).

This experience of communion each Sunday is what gives us hope to face the complex problems in the world and in our everyday lives.

So go! Announce this gospel of hope! Glorify the Lord by your life! Go become what you have received so that the world may know that Christ is not dead and buried. He is alive! And He is sending out missionaries from every Catholic parish every Sunday to bring the His sacred, loving heart to a hurting world.

About David O’Brien David O’Brien is the Associate Director of Religious Education for Lay Ministry for the Archdiocese of Mobile. His column, Everyday Faith, appears regularly in the archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Week. Email David at dobrien@mobilearchdiocese.org.