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When we comment on a compassionate parent’s correction and punishment of a child, we often say the parent is too indulgent. That phrase may give us an insight into the Church’s teaching about indulgences. Indulgences correctly understood and piously obtained are a vital moment in our continual conversion. When our sins are forgiven there remains penance for them. All of us must admit that when we are assigned a penance in confession, it hardly compensates for the offense against our good and loving God. We make up for that disparity in purgatory or by our good deeds to which the Church grants an indulgence from the “Treasury of Merit” stored up by Christ, Mary and the saints. These merits are applied to our debts of penance when what we perform in our prayers and by our good deeds (under proper dispositions on our part) are added to their merits to make reparation. It might be thought of as “matching funds.” Indulgences are gained with the sincere reception of the Sacrament of Penance and Eucharist, prayer for our Holy Father’s intentions (usually some need in the Church), and faithful fulfillment of prayers and actions to which indulgences are attached. The indulgences are either plenary or partial and only God knows what we are receiving. The Church is simply telling us what the potential is in the good work or prayer performed since only God knows our disposition. When our sins are forgiven, the eternal punishment attached to them is remitted. However, the temporal punishment attached to them remains. The modern world has de-emphasized or eliminated sin. The world certainly has a superficial attitude toward penance. The Handbook of Indulgences (1999), put out by Cardinal Baum, contains what is to be done: “participation in day or week of prayer dedicated to specific religious ends, the cult of the Eucharist, and group recitation of the rosary.” Indulgences fit in with the Pope’s call for revitalization of our faith, evangelization and the renewal of our prayer life and charity.

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“Covenant” is a word somewhat unusual in our every day usage. It is much more than a contract about “things.” A covenant is between “persons” and is the giving of oneself to another as in the sacrament of marriage. It is a solemn promise fortified by an oath. We usually mention the word in reference to a promise by God and his people. A covenant was struck by God in the Old Testament, particularly with the patriarch, Abraham (Genesis 15:1-21). The covenant was sealed with the blood of  slaughtered animal(s). The ritual carried out in the remembrance of the covenant symbolized what would happen to the people if they broke their covenant with God. (This ritual included walking through the entrails of the sacrificial animal.) As often as they returned or sought God’s mercy, the covenant was resumed. While various animals were used in covenants like bulls, goats, small birds, etc., both in their enactment and in their renewals or remembrance, Christians often recall the unblemished lambs sacrificed by Jews in the time of Moses so that the angel of death might pass them by and that the Egyptians might set them free (Exodus 12:1-20). Our Lord would use this Passover commemoration as the occasion to institute his new covenant. Of course, Jesus Christ, himself, is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. The word, “covenant,” the new and eternal covenant, occurs in the words of Consecration. First used at the Last Supper, we find it in Mark 14:24 where the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice is referred to as the new covenant. This covenant was sealed in “the blood of Christ.” Since the Eucharist is the re-presentation (not repetition) of that sacrifice, the word is used at Mass. When we go to Communion, we receive the body and blood of Christ. God is always true to his word, faithful to his promise. In a sense, we renew our pledge or promise of ourselves to God. It is as if we were “sprinkled” with the blood of the Lamb at Communion. This covenant is the cause of our hope. We, you and I, belong to God. God will never reject us. His promise, his giving of himself to us, is ever new and eternal. Trusting in him, we cannot be lost. We are never alone. No one will snatch us out of his hand. Each time we hear the word COVENANT at the Consecration and receive Communion, we ought to rejoice and realize to whom we belong. He is faithful to his promises to us. If we are to know that God’s promise is eternal and unfailing then we must surrender completely to our loving God.

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Perhaps the most used and taken-for-granted word in our Liturgy is “Amen.” It is a Hebrew term which means, “I agree,” “so be it,” or as the younger generation used to say, “right on.” So it is, so it shall be. The word ratifies our expression of faith— our creed, our prayer, and is our consent and approval. It is also the name of Jesus (Revelation 3:14). Whenever the celebrant holds his hands extended, at the width of his shoulders, it is special prayer time at Mass. Our first AMEN comes after the beginning prayer (Collect). It is said also at the prayer prior to the Preface (at the end of the Prayer Over the Offerings). Later it is said at the end of the Prayer After Communion. These three prayers the celebrant says on our behalf. Thus our AMEN should be audible and clear as we express our faith; we are saying that we agree with the prayer uttered in our name. The priest, extending his hands, recalls the incident in the Old Testament (Exodus 17:11-12) where Moses stood on a hill overlooking the battle that his people, the Jews, were fighting. Moses was praying for victory. As long as he prayed, the battle went in their favor. When Moses relaxed, because his arms grew weary from being extended in prayer, the tide turned against his people. Two men came up to him and held up his arms. Moses once again prayed in the accustomed Jewish manner. Try it sometime and see how long you can hold your arms extended. This will assist you in appreciating Moses’ need to have help in prayer. We voice our help for the celebrant’s prayer at Mass by our word, AMEN. In a sense, we uphold “the arms of the celebrant,” as the two men helped Moses pray. We support his hands by our response AMEN. Speak clearly and let your response be heard in support of the prayer. Do not just mumble the AMEN. At Communion time, we respond AMEN to the words, “The body of Christ,” spoken by the priest, deacon or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. This is our profession of faith, not only in the real presence but in all that the Catholic Church teaches. Only those who are practicing Catholics can give assent to the articles of faith. We say AMEN to the gift of Christ in the Eucharist, making a declaration of our faith at Communion. We should be appreciative and unashamed about this great gift, proclaiming the truth with an AMEN that resounds through the community and beyond. Our AMEN lends support to the faith of fellow believers and beckons to others that they might come and know what we have. It is not a time for silent approval. AMEN— “truly it is so,” “I believe,”— we are proud to profess our faith.

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St. Paul tells us to dedicate ourselves to thankfulness. When St. Paul uses the verb, “dedicate,” he seems to be calling for a consistent attitude of giving thanks on our part. Not explicit in his statement, but an essential part of giving thanks, means that we should direct our thanks to someone, beginning with God. Often people say, “I feel so thankful.” But, thanksgiving is not a feeling we simply have; rather, it is an acknowledgment of our indebtedness to God. The Eucharist is the supreme act of thanksgiving since we join our gratitude to that of Christ as we thank the Father with him. Looking at the Liturgy of the Eucharist with an eye for thanksgiving might make us more aware of what we are doing. At the end of the first Scripture readings, we say, “Thanks be to God.” Why thanks? It is because we have just heard the living Word of God. God is present in his Word. We faithfully accept it, thanking God for being present and speaking to us. The Word is “living,” not just a throwback to another time. Turning to the Gloria, when we recite or sing it, we give thanks to God. When the bread and wine are offered at the Preparation of the Gifts, the priest says, “Blessed are you, Lord God” and the people say, “Blessed be God forever.” The Jews understood this word “blessed” as meaning to give thanks. Bread, in that instance, means that we give thanks for all we have. Acting out our thanks, the prayer continues by acknowledging that the bread has been made with our human hands. We have used the talent that God gave us and we are grateful. Work symbolizes, here in this priestly prayer, using our hands. We do the work we have to do. At the Preface, before the Consecration, we are again invited to give thanks to the Lord our God. We respond that to give thanks and praise is right and just. Thus, our giving thanks should not be limited to “Turkey Day” once a year, but as an accustomed relationship with God.

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Due to familiarity, we become so used to the Bidding Prayers at the Liturgy that we tend to mouth the responses with little reflection. It is not the volume of many voices that makes the prayer heard. It is not the number of those saying the responses that makes the prayer effective. At the Liturgy, we come together to be a sign to all that we are one body in Christ. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” All of us, because of God’s grace, are one with each other and one with Christ. A common response is “Lord, hear our prayer.” We are not so much addressing here Jesus Christ as Lord (although he is such by virtue of his divinity) but God the Father. Christ is praying with us as head of his body, the Church. Our prayer is offered in the name of Jesus Christ. This does not mean that we are name-droppers, but that we are conscious that Christ is still our intercessor and priest. There is a structure to the Church’s General Intercessions. We should pray for Christ’s Vicar on earth, our Holy Father. We should pray for civil authorities so as to “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” We should pray for universal needs, for victims of tragedies, those in war, those in poverty, etc. The greatest poverty is not to know God. We pray for the needs of missionaries and for those who cannot gather to pray in freedom as we do. So we should be conscious of the universal Church as much as we are of little parochial gatherings. Christ gives many examples in the Gospel of perseverance in prayer. There is no mathematical goal or a celestial number-counter scoring how many times we say, “Lord, hear our prayer.” Repetition is not a wakeup call for a deity who is oblivious to our petitions. Rather, he allows that perseverance and repetitive call to form us, the petitioners. We become in that praying what we ought to be— God’s children, asking our heavenly Father for our needs. This develops what we ought to be, members of Christ’s body praying with each other and for each other in union with Jesus Christ, our head. We ask him to take us with him in that Prayer of the Faithful to the throne of the Father, so that the Father will sees in us what he sees in his only begotten Son, dutiful and trusting children in whom he is well pleased.

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Have you ever noticed that Catholics are more inclined to think about the Holy Spirit at Confirmation, Pentecost or some novena than we are at Mass? Besides being the tag-on whenever the Big “Three” are mentioned in the Sign of the Cross or the ending of a prayer, we should be aware of the big role that the Holy Spirit plays in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit is invoked before the words of consecration when the priest’s hands are extended over the bread and wine. The Holy Spirit is called on specially to change the bread and wine into sacramental-physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters at the time of creation to bring order into creation. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary as the incarnate God took up residence in her womb. The Holy Spirit was there to launch the Church on the first Pentecost when he used the image of fiery tongues. We pray at Mass that we may be one in Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead of trying on our own to be pure, respectful and united to one another— do we invite the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit? Without the Holy Spirit and its indwelling, there will be no unity in family, society and with strangers. Another prayer during the Eucharist in the Canon is that those who receive the body and blood of Christ may be filled with the Holy Spirit. The corporeal presence of Christ in his physical reality remains in us after communion for about fifteen minutes. This is why we should spend a few moments in quiet thanksgiving after each reception instead of rushing out the door or immediately going about our socializing or business. But, although the sacramental-physical (substantial) presence of Christ is no longer with us, the presence of the Holy Spirit (sanctifying grace) remains with us until we unfortunately reject him by serious sin. That means that we carry God in us as we leave the liturgy. St. Paul asks us, “Don’t you know that you are temples of God?” If we are, then so are others. This, with all due respect, makes the Eucharist a very functional sacrament that is to increase the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. When we eat the body and blood of Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Whenever we have a moment, we should turn inward (to this presence) for strength, guidance and help as we go about our normal lives. This brief reflection on his presence is the basis of the command of Scripture to pray always, sharing our joy, surprises, inspiration and work with God himself. “Come Holy Spirit, make us more aware of your presence.”

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One of the most difficult forms of prayer is the Prayer of Praise. Petition comes easier because we know (or think we know) what we need. Thanksgiving is a little easier because we can easily realize all that we have been given. Sorrow stems from our knowledge of ourselves and of our actions. Praise, as I said, is more difficult; and yet, our Liturgy revolves around the praise of God. The angels have no difficulty because they “see” the glory of God. They are not bored or tired of “looking,” because God is infinite in all his beauty, wisdom and glory. Sometimes we think (in a silly way) we will be bored after a while in heaven. That is because we do not know God (directly). Like scientists here, the more they see and find, the more they proceed with inquiry. They are as humans hampered by distractions, fatigue or other human conditions. But this is not so in heaven. These conditions do not interfere with our praise of God. Our praise starts here on earth. We know by FAITH. We are limited by how we know in our human condition; nevertheless, we should praise God even in this life. Our Lord implies that there is beauty and wonder beyond our present condition when he says that “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard…what God has prepared for those who love him.” We cannot imagine what God has prepared for us in the life to come. Our Lord praised God the Father at the Last Supper even in his moment of human anxiety or distress at what it would cost him. We should be mindful of this as we hear the words of consecration. He gave praise and thanks to the Father before giving us that gift of the Holy Eucharist. Praise can occur, not only in times of exaltation, but also in dire moments. One word used, and that we take for granted, is “Alleluia.” This is a Hebrew word heard most prominently during the Easter season as we hail Christ who overcomes death and sin for us. We use it before the Gospel (usually singing it) because Christ is about to speak to us in his living Word. We say it at the conclusion of the Liturgy during Easter time, because we praise God for what he has done for us, namely, re-presenting his death and resurrection in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The key to this word of praise is “el,” the Hebrew word for God. Angels have those letters in their names: Raphael, Michael and Gabriel. Even the Jewish airline is called “El Al.” In the composition of the word, “Alleluia,” you see the Hebrew letters, “el,” because we are praising God. Give emphasis and attention to the Alleluia the next time we sing it at Mass.

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What was said about the significance of the bread at the Offertory can be said of the wine that is changed into the sacramental-physical presence of the glorified Christ. No whether one receives the host or from the cup, one receives the whole and entire Christ. The sign value of the separate consecrations of the bread and wine is that we are proclaiming the death of Christ. Such was shown in his last moments by the separation of blood and body on the Cross— the sign of death. We need our drink as we need our bread for sustenance. So the Lord tells us to drink his blood as an indication of its life-sustaining value. As ordinary liquid is to our human life, the wine turned into precious blood sustains our spiritual life. Why did our Lord use those apparently indelicate words: “eat, drink, body and blood” in connection with the Eucharist? The words, “body and blood,” make it abundantly clear the kind of presence in the Eucharist. It is not the presence as hailed in God’s proclaimed Word, the Scriptures. Nor is it the same as in us when we are in a state of grace. Rather, it is the real substantial, living and glorified Christ. The only place his “physical” body is present is at the right hand of the Father and in the Eucharist. This is why we call it THE REAL PRESENCE. Not that the other presences are not real, but this is the presence par excellence. We respond to that spiritual reality by saying, “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.” He does not die again, but his real presence is actualized and presented to us in the Eucharist. Of course, Christ cannot suffer again, but the Mass makes present the death and resurrection of Christ. His dispositions at Mass are the same as they are on Calvary; he is obedient to his Father’s will and offers praise and thanks to the Father. The Eucharist is not only a divine presence, but a divine activity. He who is present is above and beyond time; he makes his death-resurrection present to us. The sign, bread and wine, changed into the body and blood of Christ under the appearance or accidents of bread and wine, does what they signify. Life, nourishment, strength and healing come to us from the Eucharist on our way to our Father’s house. Indeed, it is Christ under the appearance of bread and wine that helps us on that journey.

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Why did our Lord use bread and wine to give us his presence in the Eucharist? As in all the sacraments, the outward sign indicates what Christ is doing at the moment of reception of the sacrament. Bread is a sign of life. Even the hippies of old used the phrase, “Give me some bread, man” as a way of asking for that which would sustain them and their lifestyle. Bread is not something we get without work. There’s planting, growing, and reaping. In addition, the wheat has to be ground (connected to contrition). Then the ground wheat must be baked in heat (with yeast in some cases so it rises) and then we have bread. One can see that the finished product is the result of human labor. When used at the altar (unleavened bread in the West), we are saying that we offer God all that comprises our life: The sweat of our brow from labor, the joys of our life (as at harvest time) and the grinding of our selfishness in the separation of the wheat from the chaff. Yeast symbolizes many things in Christianity. The Eastern churches use yeast in the sacrament to signify the resurrection. Just as yeast causes the bread to rise, our work is offered up to the Lord. The symbolism of yeast is that our work is raised up by God as apostolic as we heed our Lord, “you are the yeast of the world.” Bread sustains us in our life’s journey; so does Christ sustain us in our way to our Father’s house. If our Lord intended, as he did, when he said, “eat my flesh,” he would have to have given us something that we could consume. The accidents of the consecrated bread allow that consuming. As Creator of all things, Christ could have chosen a precious metal, and changed its substance into his physical presence. We would be able to adore, but not consume it for that most intimate of unions between Christ and ourselves. There is thanksgiving involved. We thank God for the seed, the work, the harvest and then the bread. When bread becomes Christ, Christ gives thanks to the Father for us; hence, the name of the ceremony, “Eucharist,” which word means thanksgiving. But we do not give back to God just what he gave us, namely, wheat. We put the work of our lives into our gift. These are the words of our offering (over the bread): “Blessed (thanks) are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.” Today, the collection takes the place of the foodstuffs for the Church and the poor, since we have moved from the barter system to coinage as an indication that we are giving a portion of our lives. Does our offering to the Church and to the poor really represent a goodly portion of our livelihood, as the bread and wine were products of our life and labor in days of old? Are we aware that the bread stands for all the elements of our life— work, joys, sustenance and livelihood? Do we realize that our offering of bread becomes the presence of Christ and that those things for which the bread stands are offered to the Father by Christ along with his offering?

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When the sacrament of baptism is received, a personal relationship is set up between the person newly initiated and God. Often overlooked is the other relationship which is that of the family of faith— a bond between the baptized and with God. For want of a better description, the union between Christ (the head of our family) and the various members baptized or “born again” is referred to as the “mystical” body. We do not know the “how” of this union, only the fact that it exists. There are many members of the body, but one head who is Christ. This union is surely brought to our attention when we gather for the Eucharist. We all have the same last name, Christian. We all eat at the same table— we are family. We all have the same share in the life of Christ within us. This union is brought out clearly in the Prayer of the Faithful after the homily at Mass. We pray then as a family. Some of the petitions may not be on the top of our personal list of concerns, but it is the prayer of all the faithful. There is a structure to the Prayer of the Faithful. We pray for the Church, visible and invisible, for the Church’s teaching authority, the Vicar of Christ, the Pope. We pray for those oppressed by various needs (present and absent). Hence, we pray for victims of floods and earthquakes, the poor, and in short, for all our brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray for the needs of the sick. We pray for the deceased and for the salvation of the whole world. This is our family prayer. At each petition, the gathered faithful respond and pray for all. The response is either recited or sometimes even sung. However, it should never be said just perfunctorily or mumbled by rote. The response should be said in an emphatic way, demonstrating that we are conscious of who we are and of what we are doing in union with Christ, the great intercessor for his body, the Church. We can pray for the local community (parish) with specific intentions about the needs and work of our parish family.

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