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| #24MoreDays I really enjoyed this series back in the day |
Now, you might be asking, "Alphonse, you're in the Philippines and your biggest highlight is going to mass? What about the ocean, what about the food, what about the people? You go to mass every Sunday, and sometimes more than that." See for the past 2 Sundays we've gone to mass but they were celebrated in Bisaya (a Filipino dialect), and me being me, I don't understand Bisaya... at all... Of course, because I've been to many masses I could still keep up with all the parts of the mass and I could still participate by responding in English. And ultimately, God is still the same God here as He is in Canada; He doesn't change because my physical location changes. But today's mass was different.
Let's back up a bit to today's Gospel. It is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the five barley loaves and two fish. When I did my Lectio Divina this morning two things stood out to me. First, God told me to be attentive to the signs (this is one of the main themes of John's Gospel) of His love for me. Second, "Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost" (John 6:12). I'll dive a bit more into these two things later in this post.
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| Here's a picture. It says a thousand words. |
So in my last post I said that I would talk a bit more about prayer, and I guess that's what I'm going to do in this post except I'll focus it a bit more on the mass specifically. I guess the question I wanted to ponder was "why should we pray?" Does God need to hear my praise, or my wanting, or my gratitude. God is perfect. He knows my thoughts even before I think them (see Psalm 139). So why pray? Well, I want to suggest that the answer to that question is the same answer to why we should uphold the third commandment: "Remember the sabbath day" (Exodus 20:8) (or if you want to ask the same question differently, why do we have to go to mass on Sunday). Well, you don't have to go to mass on Sunday, you do have free will, but before you decide to start skipping Sunday mass consider this (and please don't go around saying Alphonse told me to skip Sunday mass because I didn't, don't skip Sunday mass). We already said God is perfect. He doesn't need our praise, intentions, or thanks. So why did He make it a commandment (not a suggestion!) that we remember the sabbath (ie. go to mass on Sunday)? If God is loving and He did not do it for Himself then that can only mean one thing: He did it for us.
Wait, hold up. You're telling me that going to church for an hour (also factor in getting ready time); listening to some boring homilies (actually they aren't all that boring at all); listening to plain music (I think it's quite beautiful actually); and switching between standing, sitting, and kneeling (exercise is good for you) (also one of my sayings is "as the body, so the soul" but we can talk about that another time) is good for me? It's for my benefit to lose one day of my week (ok exaggeration... but not so much in some rites I think)? Yes, going to mass every Sunday is for your benefit. Why? Because the mass is where we encounter God, and encountering God transforms us. God gave us the mass and commands us to celebrate it because He knows we need Him.
Today's mass was special for me because it was celebrated in English (mostly). I didn't think that a mass being celebrated in English could have such an impact on me, but it did, and for that I will probably never forget this mass (Thanks Vatican 2!).
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| who knew that a church/chapel in the mall would be where I'd experience such a life-changing thing, eh? |
1. Sign of God's Love for Me
The transformation that occurs in our hearts when we regularly go to mass and seek Him out in prayer is that we desire God, we learn to yearn and long for him, we experience a turning back to Him. That was made apparent to me when I realized my hunger for God today. Going just two Sunday masses in a language I could not understand created a spiritual hunger. While I had been present at mass upholding my obligation to be there and participating as I could, in my humanness I failed to feel truly immersed in the celebration. That changed at this mass. By the Gloria, by the line "Glory to God," I was in tears. I was crying because it felt like my heart had longed for so long to proclaim along with all God's people "Glory to God!" All those masses that I had attended reoriented my heart to where it should be facing. It made me long to praise and glorify God. Being "unable" to do so (because of my human weakness I felt I was unable), created a thirsting for my heart to give praise where it is due. God does not need my praise, glory, attention, or love; but I sure as heck need to give it to Him.
2. "Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost"
Because of the absence of words that I could understand in the masses of the past two weeks, I grew to appreciate the words that I could understand in today's mass. Actually, more than just appreciate, I grew to treasure what I could understand. In today's Gospel, the creating of more bread and fish out of nothing is miraculous. It is a sign of the presence of God's grace. That is why I think Jesus says, "Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost." We ought to treat grace as so precious so not to lose a single shred of it. The words I could understand became a sign of God's grace and mercy for me. Every single word became like a crumb that fell from God's table towards me, and in gratitude, my heart treasured these words and held them closely so not to let any of these drop to the ground. Grace is a mercy that we don't deserve, so we should treat it so preciously.
These are two ways that I have experienced spiritual transformation by attending Sunday mass, but it took God bringing me to the other side of the world and having a hard time being here for me to realize it. To be aware of it is also a grace and mercy from God. If you have not been attending Sunday mass regularly, it's not too late. Come home. If you have been attending Sunday mass regularly, I encourage you to reflect on how God has transformed you.
Glory to God!
...And with that my God be praised!
P.S. Pray for me please! While I have experienced a huge mountaintop experience, I don't expect my time here to plateau and stay as a mountaintop. I will be lifting you up in any and all of my sufferings.
