Recently, while preparing my Sunday homily, the words that continued to come to my mind were “conversion” and “renewal.” In my preparation, when I reflected on the three readings, those two words kept entering my consciousness. For me, these words were a good key to reflection on the readings. If they were a good key for me, perhaps they would be a good key for those participating in the Eucharist.
I suspect most Catholics are familiar with stories of great saints experiencing a profound conversion that dramatically changed their lives and enabled them to make profound commitments to God. The conversion experience may have been brief, but it changed their lives completely. I think immediately of St. Paul. For most of us, the “conversion experience” may involve many experiences over a lifetime.
Perhaps in the past, some of us thought of conversions only in terms of people changing from one religion to another, but I believe that all of us are called to conversion in the sense of deepening our commitments to God and also called to the renewal of previous commitments such as those made at baptism or confirmation or marriage or entering a religious order.
Almost every week, when I prepare a Sunday homily, I am very aware that the experience of the eucharistic celebration can slip into a routine, and something of its greatness will be lost on us. To combat the danger of routine, I decided to talk about some of the ultimate meanings that fill every eucharistic celebration. Even as I prepared the homily that I was going to deliver to others, I knew I was being touched by the ideas coming into my mind.
I started the homily by asking the congregation why we came to the Mass:
Why are we here? Why did we come here this morning? First, we have come to hear God speak to us. We are not here primarily to hear Father Lauder or some celebrity or some politician. No! We are here to listen to God.
The scriptural readings at every Eucharist are God speaking to us. I mean that, literally. The readings at every Eucharist are the Word of God. Are we listening? Are we ready to grow? Are we eager to grow, to deepen our commitment, to be renewed? What can happen in a Eucharist on a Sunday morning is awesome. It really can have cosmic implications.
To commit to Christ involves a profound change. We are called to be new persons. Amazing! Many years ago, probably more than 60, I read a statement by the great theologian Romano Guardini that greatly impressed me. Guardini claimed that a Christian climbs a tree differently than everyone else. What did Guardini mean? He meant that committing to Christ involves a profound personal change and that personal change can influence every aspect of our lives. We are called to be new selves.
It is important to remind ourselves of the unique character of liturgical prayer. The liturgy is Christ praying and, wonder of wonders, we are invited to pray with Christ. When we offer the bread and wine to God prior to the consecration, we should also be offering ourselves. It is as though we are on the paten with the bread and in the cup with the wine.
I wonder what our experience might be if we could only celebrate one Eucharist in our lives. What would be our experience? How would we prepare? Between the word “prepare” and the start of this sentence, I had to interrupt writing this column because I went to join the priests with whom I live to concelebrate a Mass.
During the concelebration, some of the ideas I have expressed in this column were on my mind. The temptation of allowing the concelebration to be reduced to a familiar routine was present, but my very awareness of that temptation was beneficial. Probably the most important idea was a sense of awe and wonder at what the priests and I were doing. This may be an instance of a teacher or preacher being taught by what he or she is trying to communicate to others.
A new memory has entered my mind. It is the memory of being ordained. During the ordination, those ordained concelebrate with the bishop who has ordained them. I can easily recall the experience.
Right now, I think the best response to a Eucharist is gratitude. Somehow, I am almost certain that gratitude to God for all the blessings that God has showered on us, especially gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist, will be at the center of my homily next Sunday.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. He presents two 15-minute talks from his lecture series on the Catholic Novel, 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday on NET-TV.
