We do indeed “meet Christ in the liturgy”. Learning this truth and living by it, every Catholic can learn to love the liturgy more and to participate in it more deeply, responding to the infinite graces that are present in each Mass. Many, unfortunately, are unaware that an encounter with Christ happens each time the liturgy is offered. Many allow themselves to become bored, are put off by the obligation to attend Mass, and many fall away. Yes, we must attend Mass each week in order to fulfill the commandment to keep the Lord’s Day holy, but it is more perfect to do so out of love of God and the desire to praise Him. He is ever worthy of all praise and glory because of He is God. It is our great calling as creatures to find fulfillment and happiness in coming to know and love our Creator, and to worship Him.
The teaching of the Church about the presence of Christ in the Mass, or liturgy, comes from Christ’s own teaching. Christ is present in the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament, really, truly and substantially. The Eucharist is the great sign of the Church and the guarantee of Lord’s abiding presence in the Church and in the sacraments.
Christ is also present through the authority of the Church to teach in matters of faith and morals in his name and, as it were, with his own voice. In today’s Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter eighteen, verses fifteen to twenty, we hear again that the Church has been given Christ’s power to bind or loose, to forgive or not forgive sins. All of the Church’s faithful enjoy Christ’s presence, through the Holy Spirit, while assembled to praise and worship him and to pray in His name. The Catechism helps us in our understanding. Christ, glorified at the right of the Father in heaven, is now present among us in a number of ways, including in the earthly liturgy, or the Mass. “Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not only in the person of his minister, ‘the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,’ but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.’ ” (Mt. 18: 20) (CCC 1088)
HE IS AMONG US
Although Jesus’ words as recorded by Matthew are of great importance for the life of our Christian communities, they haven’t often received the attention of commentators and preachers. This is Jesus’ promise: “Where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them.”
Jesus isn’t thinking about massive celebrations like those in the Plaza of St. Peter’s in Rome. Though only two or three, he’s there in their midst. It’s not necessary that the hierarchy be present; it’s not so much how big the group is.
What’s important is that “they gather together”, not dispersed, not debating: not putting one another down. What’s decisive is that they come together “in his name”: that they listen to his call, identify with his project of God’s Reign. That Jesus be the center of their small group.
This living and real presence of Jesus is what needs to enliven, guide and sustain the small communities of his followers. It’s Jesus who has to breathe in their prayer, their celebrations, their projects and activities. This presence is the “secret” of every living Christian community.
We Christians can’t gather together in our groups and communities in just any old way: out of custom, or inertia or just to fulfill some religious obligation. We may be many, or often few. But what’s important is that we gather together in his name, attracted by his person and by his project of making a more human world.
We need to reawaken the awareness that we are communities of Jesus. We gather to listen to his Gospel, to keep alive his memory, to be infected with his Spirit, to welcome in ourselves his joy and his peace, to announce his Good News.
The future of the Christian faith will depend for the most part on what we Christian do in our concrete communities during the coming decades. It’s not enough what Pope Francis can do in the Vatican. Nor can we put our hope in a small group of priests who get ordained in the coming years. Our only hope is Jesus Christ.
We are the ones who have to center our Christian communities in the person of Jesus as the only force capable of regenerating our worn-out and routine faith. The only one capable of attracting today’s men and women. The only one capable of bringing to birth a new faith in these times of unbelief. The renovation of the Church’s central core is urgent. Reform decrees are necessary. But there’s nothing so decisive as returning radically to Jesus Christ.