From the Pastor's Desk | April 13, 2025

Gospel Reflection

As we enter into Holy Week, I am contemplating our acts of worship and devotion.  When Jesus entered the holy city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples, the people worshiped Him as He made His way.  They laid their cloaks and palm branches over the road that the colt trod, shouted praises, and were elated to see Jesus.  They showed Him right praise and worship.  Their shouts of praises, however, quickly turned to jeers of anger as they cried out, “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!”

Why am I contemplating our acts of worship?  Worship is on my mind because, without it, we could easily turn into that crowd that turned on Jesus so quickly.  The word liturgy is derived from two Greek words meaning public work.  Our worship - our liturgy - is, in fact, a public work.  It is a public act, open to anyone.  And, it is work.

When we replace the object of worship, namely God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - with ourselves, we end up saying things like, “Mass is boring,” or, “I just don’t get anything out of Mass”.  Some persevere in worship, but I’m sure you know others who stopped attending and engaging in the Mass altogether to seek something different, something that they would say fulfills them.  Again, we’ve replaced the object of worship with ourselves, making ourselves the beneficiary of our worship.  

Worship, however, has nothing to do with us or our egos.  First and foremost, worship is about God.  In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites both the command to worship and the prescriptions of how their worship should be done.  The mistake is often made that, in doing so, it shows that God is self absorbed and tyrannical.  On the contrary, God, through right worship, is slowly revealing Himself to His chosen people and is foreshadowing what Christ would do as He sacrificed Himself on the Cross.  He is the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  

Jesus Himself gave us the prescriptions of what our worship should look like in the new covenant, the covenant cut in His blood.  On the day before He was to suffer, He took bread in His holy and venerable hands, and with eyes raised to heaven, to God His almighty father, giving thanks, He said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to His disciples saying, “Take this all of you and eat of it.  For this is my body, which will be given up for you.”  In a similar way, when supper was ended, He took the precious chalice in His holy and venerable hands, and once more giving God thanks, He said the blessing and gave the chalice to His disciples saying, “Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.  Do this in memory of me.” 

God understands us.  He understands that when we stop worshiping we will end up worshiping something else, replacing God with the things of the world.  There are so many temptations and idols that people seek and ultimately live for when their worship of the One True God has ceased.  These can be summed up in power, wealth, pleasure, and honor.  When we stop worshiping, we end up living for the world rather than for God.  This is why He commands us to worship and gives us the prescriptions for that worship.  

And, here’s the best thing about worship.  Our worship is salvific.  Even though right worship has nothing to do about us we actually do end up getting so much out of it - grace.  We are afforded sanctifying grace because we are given not only access to God but he allows us to participate in his divine nature through the Sacraments, particularly the Sacrament of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  

As we enter Holy Week, contemplate your worship.  Do you worship?  How often and how regularly?  Do you regularly attend Mass?  Are you doing things to help you engage more fully in the Mass?  What could you do to engage yourself more fully in the Mass?  Are you willing to do the work of worship?  

If you are one of so many who worship irregularly, perhaps you might consider walking through each of the high Holy Days’ liturgies this year - the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Thursday 7:00 pm), the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday (3:00pm), and the Easter Vigil (Saturday 9:00 pm).  

God does have something for us in worship - in liturgy.  Are we willing to do the work? 

Know of my prayers for you all! 

Fr. Ryan