Pope Francis invites to live the mystery of God's presence in the Mass

Vatican City, 10 February 2014: Pope Francis invited all to ‘rediscover the sense of the sacred, the mystery of the real presence of God in the Mass’. His invitation came during his homily at Mass on Monday morning in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.

The first reading of the day described the theophany of God in the days of King Solomon. The Lord descended as a cloud on the Temple, which was filled with the glory of God. The Lord speaks to his people in many ways: through the prophets, the priests, the Holy Scripture, said the Pope. The theophany speaks in another way, "different from the Word: it is closer, without mediation. His presence, said the Pope, happens in the liturgical celebration. The liturgical celebration is not just a social act of gathering of believers to pray together. In the liturgy, God is present, and we ‘participate in this theophany, in this mystery of the Lord's presence among us."

Nativity scenes, the Way of the Cross... these are representations. The Mass, on the other hand, “is a real commemoration, that is, it is a theophany: God approaches and is with us, and we participate in the mystery of the Redemption.” Unfortunately, too often we look at the clock during Mass, “counting the minute.” This, the Pope said, is not the attitude the liturgy requires of us: the liturgy is God’s time, God’s space, and we must place ourselves there, in God’s time, in God’s space, and not look at the clock”.

The Pope recalled that, as a child, during the preparation for his First Holy Communion, there was a song that conveyed how the altar was guarded by angels to give "a sense of the glory of God, of God’s space, of God’s time’. And when, during rehearsals, they brought the hosts, said to the children: "Look, these are not the ones you will receive; these count nothing, because they have to be consecrated." Thus, the Pope concluded "to celebrate the liturgy is to have this willingness to enter into the mystery of God."
Source: VR Sedoc