Devotion for today: Gather the people

Scripture for meditation: Galatians 3:26-28

 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is^] neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: 1348: All gather together. Christians come together in one place for the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the offerings, those who give communion and the whole people whose "Amen" manifests their participation.

Fr. Robert Barron tells us: In a certain sense, the Mass commences with a gathering of the people. They come from all walks of life, from different social and educational backgrounds, from a variety of economic strata, with differing levels of moral excellence, and from both genders – and they all form the community gathered around the altar of Christ. In this diversity, they form an eschatological icon of God’s holy people. The fallen world is marked by division, separation, stratification; we sinners are intensely interested in questions of priority and exclusivity: Who is in and who is out…. When Dorothy Day was considering her conversion to Catholicism, she would attend Sunday Mass. Though the Liturgy was in a language she didn't know, and though its central action was surrounded by much baroque decoration, she was deeply impressed by the fact that both the rich and the poor, both the educated and the uneducated, both the housekeeper and the grande dame attended, kneeling side by side. The Catholic historian, Christopher Dawson, upon telling his mother that he was converting to the Catholic faith from his native Anglicanism was met with this response, “It’s not so much the doctrines that concern me; it’s that now you’ll be worshipping with the help!” (Catholicism, Image Books, 2011)

My thoughts: As you enter your pew and begin to prepare for the Mass to begin, take a look around you. See the scriptures come alive right before your very eyes. What did Jesus do when he gave the Sermon on the Mount? He gathered the people. What did Jesus say when the apostles tried to keep the children, the poor, the sick, the sinners away from him? “Let them come unto me.” What did Jesus do on the night he was betrayed? He gathered his apostles around him. There is room at the Mass for everyone, even the greatest sinner. Our Liturgy begins with all of us coming together, just as in the Old Testament, when Moses, and Joshua, and Elijah the prophet, and all the OT greats, would gather the people before giving a word from God. We have gathered to share our faith, our belief, and our desire to hear the word of God and live it, to receive the bread of life and go forth renewed and refreshed. The assembly in which you are sitting is holy, chosen by God. Pray for everyone gathered around you, and remember that the word “Mass” means “sending forth” to spread the good news of the gospel. We are not a private faith. Through the Mass, we share in each other’s lives.

Prayer for the Church

Heavenly Father, look upon our community of faith which is the Church of your Son Jesus Christ.
Help us to witness to his love by loving all our fellow creatures without exception.
Under the leadership of the Holy Father and the Bishops, keep us faithful to Christ's mission of calling all men and women to your service so that there may be "one fold and one shepherd." We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Amen. http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=584