Fr Billy Swan
Dear friends. The Eucharist is never meant to be like a spectator sport where the extent of our active participation is to look at and listen to what happens ahead of us in the sanctuary of a Church. From the time we were kids, we were told by our parents to watch the priest, listen and keep quiet. The point I’d like to make is that if this all Mass is then little wonder why many people become bored, fall away and stop coming.
So, let’s get to the heart of it. The Eucharist is meant to be an act of worship in which we consciously participate by presenting ourselves to the God who loves us, knows us and to whom we belong. In the Old Testament, the people brought an animal to the temple as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. For Christians, this practice of offering animals has been replaced with the offering of oneself.
This is the spirit of the Presentation of the Lord in the temple and is the spirit of this liturgy tonight/today. Joseph and Mary present Jesus in the temple and offered him to the God to whom he belonged. By that act, Joseph and Mary in effect were saying to God: ‘This child has come through us but he belongs to you. Today we consecrate him to you and to your service’.
I have come to believe more and more in the power of belonging and how it comes first. In times past, we thought that believing comes first and then behaving. But belonging is the most important of all, followed by believing and only then behaving. There is much confusion in many lives today because we fail to grasp the truth that we first belong to the God who loves us. He made us and has claim on us. When a child is baptised, the sign of the cross is traced on its forehead with the words: ‘I claim you for Christ our Saviour by the sign of the cross’. These words mean that we matter to Him and belong to him. As a Christian is welcomed into the Church for burial, we pray that God ‘claims you as one of his own’. Therefore from the very beginning of life until the very end, we belong to Him.
And so then, life is not just about us but about God’s purposes for us. I am not just an individual locked up in myself in a lonely world. Rather I am called to discover the love of someone whose hand has chosen me, anointed me and set his seal on my life.
Here is the spirituality of today’s feast of the Presentation. It is one of gentle surrender and acceptance of God’s choice of us. Slowly but surely, we are absorbed into the life and love of the God to whom we belong. With our presence here in God’s house we are stating our belief that we belong to God, not just today but for the future and for eternity.
When we come to understand the Eucharist this way, we don’t see it as a spectator sport. It’s not just about watching or listening but about taking part in one great offering of love to the Father, through Christ and in the Holy Spirit. On God’s side, the Eucharist is the time when God presents himself to us in person as we present ourselves and give ourselves to Him. With these new eyes, the Eucharist becomes a dynamic exchange that is never boring but a confirmation of God’s choice of you and me. We are His and for this we give thanks.
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