The past fifty years of liturgical renewal has cemented the Sunday Cycle of Readings firmly in the spirituality of the Catholic Church. The Word of God as found in the readings proclaimed throughout the world each Sunday in Catholic churches unite us not just by common experience, but more importantly, make us of one heart and mind in Christ. A congregation who are receptive and familiar with the prescribed readings is one of the many things that I can rely on in fulfilling my duty to preach the Gospel. Faithful Catholics by and large respect  the primacy of the thematic elements of the particular readings for a Sunday. Simply put, we all know that what God wants us to hear most is to be found in that week’s readings.

I do appreciate the reliability or constancy of the Lectionary cycle to provide spiritual, pastoral, and personal guidance in my life and in the lives of my parishioners. I very rarely base my homilies on a point that is not prominent in the readings of the day. Even for the more theological-centered celebrations, such as the Solemnity of the Birth of Our Lord, my explorations of the mysteries of the faith are guided primarily by the selected readings.

Granted, even the liturgical documents allow that the homily, while primarily an opportunity to reflect on the Scriptures of the day, may focus on a central mysteries of the faith especially as professed in the Creed, or offer a liturgical catechesis. From time to time I may explore this option, especially after I have been in an assignment for the full three years of the Sunday cycle. But I am always a bit uncomfortable because I know that most of the congregation is expecting to dig deeper into the readings of the day and might be surprised by a homily off on another tangent.

In general then, I put my tangents in my bulletin columns and that is what I would like to do this week. In this case, it is not the scriptural text that caught my attention. It was another text of the liturgy.

Last Sunday, after having heard the four wonderful homilies of Deacon Chris and Deacon Dave, I was perhaps more receptive to what God might want to say, rather than what I want to say. So when it came time to pray the Preface—the initial part of the Eucharistic Prayer before the Sanctus—I was absolutely overcome with an awe at the Mystery of the Church as I read these words:

[W]hen your children were scattered afar by sin,
through the Blood of your Son and the power of the Spirit,
you gathered them again to yourself,
that a people, formed as one by the unity of the Trinity,
made the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit,
might, to the praise of your manifold wisdom,
be manifest as the Church,

I wasn’t thinking “about” the Church in some analytic manner. My experience was more of an immediate  awareness of the Presence of Christ in his Church united throughout the world in the celebration of the Eucharist. 

Here’s how I understand it happened. I have been reflecting and praying about what should really be of the focus of our newly formed Social Concerns Commission, especially for time and talent signup. What are the concerns that afflict our community? What is it that our parish can do about these concerns? What is the Catholic difference we can make?

One of the most important guidelines of the Church’s social teaching is that human misery is not just a result of poor planning, although it can be that. Poverty isn’t just a result of people being lazy, although it can be that. Hunger is not just a result of bad weather or inefficient distribution, although it can be that.

What the Church teaches is that human misery is the result of sin and as such it is a mystery that cannot be “solved” by human ingenuity and hard work alone. Therefore the social work of the Church, while attending to the integral development of society and the human person, begins by identifying and healing sin which is the greatest threat to human dignity and thriving. 

And there it was right in the Preface, the answer to all that has been troubling me about the wreck of life that surrounds us. Sin scatters us. Christ unites us.We become his Church, the body of Christ and dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and as ministers of Christ, we work to heal the division that sin has caused.

Now we are all aware of the two major components of the Mass:  the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Christ nourishes us with his teaching and feeds us with his Body. But then what? This particular Preface  indicates that the mission of the Church is found in between the Word and Sacrament. 
For the past couple of weeks I have been finalizing the time and talent opportunities in preparation for the October stewardship renewal event. I took the time to talk to quite a few people to learn more how our parishioners have put the Gospel into practice among us and out in the wider community. What I learned was that the official ministries that our parishioners are engaged in are just the tip of the iceberg of grace they offer to others. Our stewardship renewal will give us an opportunity to share our stories with others.

To live an integral life of faith, we must take the unity we celebrate in the liturgy as God’s People and extend that unity out into the world. And what occurred to me last Sunday as I prayed those words was that God truly is honored by the witness of the Catholic Church throughout the world. Christ teaches through us. Christ heals through us. Christ feeds through us. Christ reconciles through us in lives afflicted by the misery of sin and evil. We put the Word into practice and we bring Christ to all we meet.

Yes, we are Christ’s instruments according to our personal state and vocation in life. But as Christ said, “the branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine.” It is through the mystery of the Church that we are able to encounter Christ. 
Bishop McKnight has chosen the phrase “Better together” as the motto of our diocesan pastoral renewal. It is a great slogan and certainly true. I would go even further than this. It isn’t only that working together achieves better outcomes. For sure, cooperation and collaboration are more effective strategies for accomplishing just about anything. But really, the Mystery of the Church teaches us that we can achieve no good at all apart from belonging to Christ in his Church. How can we reconcile division in the world if we do not unite as God’s people? 

To sum up:  we learn what it means to be true disciples when we gather together as Church. The liturgy teaches us how to be Church. It’s pretty obvious. Even the building’s name we gather in reveals its function. We are gathered together as one community, and in this way the mystery of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is fully revealed.