How many of the things you did when you were 10 years old do you still do today? A lot of things I used to do I don’t do anymore. This is especially true of physical activities—football is a thing of the past for me.

Even my prayer life has changed. There are some prayers and devotions that I no longer pray. However, Mass remains constant—in my life and in the life of the Church. After 2,000 years, God’s invitation to the banquet still stands.

Humans have long asked these questions. The whole Book of Job in the Bible is about the question of suffering. Christians have tried to discover meaning for suffering in studying and praying about the suffering and death of Jesus told in the Gospels. Some of the more violent biblical perspectives, however, fail to satisfy fully. Hearts and minds long for the God of compassion revealed by Jesus.

In this Update we’ll look at five reasons why I go to Mass. What are your reasons? I hope mine will help you to reflect on yours.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we have a new cover on our parish bulletin. It has attractive, bright colors and a reproduction of that beautiful stain glass window of Saint Rose of Lima in our parish hall. The text on the cover emphasizes the prophetic, priestly, and kingly nature of our community. Under the welcome to our parish, it has three key sentences that are meant to stand out. First it says: “As prophetic people we come to Mass early and prepare ourselves to hear the Word of the Lord.” Then it says: “As priestly people, we dress appropriately for the Celebration of the Mass of the Lord.” And then finally it says: “As Kingly people, we wait until the final blessing at the end of Mass when we are sent to serve the Lord.”

Why the need to put these reminders so prominently on the cover? The answer is obvious. I think that we have somehow lost our sense of the sacred, lost our sense of the mystery which ought to be a part of our liturgies when we gather each weekend for Mass.

In today’s first reading, Saint Paul helps us get in touch with how essential this sense of mystery, this sense of the sacred, is to our faith. In this section of Romans, Paul has been grappling with a key theological question regarding the salvation of his Jewish brothers and sisters. Now he has reached his ultimate conclusion. What God has planned is beyond the capability of his intellect to understand. All his efforts cannot fully comprehend the mystery of God. The wisdom of God simply evokes awe and praise. Paul stands in reverence before the God of wisdom and love. He is like us. We can study religion all we want but we always come up short. The riches and the wisdom of God are too deep to penetrate. God’s love, his judgments, and his ways, are too difficult to fathom and so ultimately we must put aside our studies and simply praise God in wonder and awe. This is what we do in liturgy.

In a way, liturgy is our theology. It says what we believe. It reflects our faith. It expresses the sense of mystery and the sense of the sacred which no human effort can ever hope to comprehend. So in a sense, the liturgy is God’s work, not our work. Yes, we all have a lot to do with what goes on in the Mass. But liturgy is really our participation here and now in what is already happening around the throne of God in heaven where angels and saints sing God’s praises forever. So we all do our parts with great care, reverence, and good taste. Liturgy becomes a powerful experience when we recognize that God is the real author of our worship. God invites us to worship and empowers us to worship.

Some Catholics complain that they’re bored at Mass. Perhaps they are expecting the Mass to be another form of entertainment or even some kind of therapy. But this is not what the Mass is meant to be. As baptized people, we don’t worship God because it makes us feel good or relieved or entertained. We worship God because God is to be worshipped. It’s all about giving ourselves in response to God. And in giving God the worship that is his due, we are uplifted and satisfy the deepest longings of our human spirit. Our full, conscious, and active participation in the Eucharist leads us to a deeper understanding of God’s word for our daily decisions, joys, and challenges.

In this Year of the Eucharist, we can and should renew what John Paul II called our Eucharistic amazement, our sense of awe in the sacrament of God’s word and Jesus living presence among us. At Mass, we participate in this wonder of Jesus’ love poured out in the sacrifice of his cross and recalled in the proclamation of God’s word.

Today Jesus asks his disciples a key question: Who do you say that I am? And then Peter blurts out in a flash of great faith: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Peter understands that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one, whom God had promised to his people. And I think, just like Peter, we can all accept this wonderful and profound theological fact through our own gift of faith. But if we come here to Mass to worship and praise this Jesus who is the Christ, the Messiah, how do we approach him? This is not a meeting hall or a community center. It’s not a theater or a stadium. This is sacred and hallowed ground. It is a church. It is God’s house.

Now our society has tended to tear down all things sacred and mysterious in our midst. Because we are a part of society, this tendency can show in the way we worship each Sunday. And so as we come to Mass, I think there are two ways we can help to restore and re-kindle that sense of the sacred, that sense of the mystery of our faith, that Eucharistic amazement that is somehow missing.

First we need to have a greater sense of reverence for this place and what is really going on here in church. And second, we need to bring a higher level of plain, old fashioned etiquette to how we behave and how we treat others during our Eucharistic liturgies. In the area of reverence, we can remind ourselves that Jesus is truly present here. He is present in the tabernacle in the form of the Blessed Sacrament and in the Word which is proclaimed from this ambo. He is present in each one of us gathering as the members of this community. He is most especially present in the Eucharistic celebration when our priest acts in the person of Christ and consecrates the bread and wine into the Jesus’ sacred body and blood. This is the Jesus whom we are coming to church to meet, truly the great mystery of our faith which is beyond all human understanding.

So, we arrive on time or a little early to prepare ourselves to hear the Word of God. As we enter the church, Jesus’ presence demands that we approach with reverence and awe. We are always dressed appropriately because this is an important celebration of our faith and we are the guests of Jesus in God’s house. We dip our hand in the holy water and make the sign of the cross to remind us of our baptismal roots and our connection with the community of all believers. We carefully genuflect out of respect for the Blessed Sacrament present in the tabernacle. We move quietly to our pew and greet Jesus in silent prayer. When Mass begins, we are attentive to what is going on in the liturgy, participate fully in the prayers, and praise God in the songs and responses. We maintain silence during the liturgy where appropriate. We teach our children about the sacredness of this place and develop their sense of mystery at coming to God’s house and worshipping with our community. We approach the altar to receive the sacred body and blood of Christ with great reverence and care. If we receive communion in the hand, we hold our left hand up and out in front of the minister with our right hand underneath. We respond with the word “Amen," not in a wimpy way but loudly, clearly, and with great affirmation that we are receiving Jesus, our Lord and Savior. We step to the left or the right and with our right hand consume the host before we return to our seat. If we choose to receive communion on our tongue, we open our mouth wide and extend our tongue so the minister can easily place the sacred host on it. We reverently receive the cup, not filled with wine but with the precious blood of Jesus. We always stay until the very end of the liturgy for the final blessing and dismissal. We never leave Mass early because we recognize that this brief time we spend with God and the community of Jesus in Eucharist is precious to us and an essential part of our faith.

An important corollary to reverence in God’s house is our etiquette and how we have consideration for others. First, we turn off our cell phones and beepers before we enter the church building. The church is a gum free zone because it is a sacred place so we ensure that chewing gum is removed from our mouths and the mouths of our children before we enter. Food and drink is never permitted in church. Infants certainly need their bottles but youngsters never eat snacks in church. School age children know that they are in God’s house and they must use the rest room facilities before Mass begins so they can last through Mass just as they do in a classroom session every day during the week. Any movement in and out of pews during our liturgy can be a great distraction to those around us. If we arrive late for Mass because of an unavoidable delay, we enter at the rear of the church so as not to distract others. Then we stand in the back until after the readings and the homily because we care that others hear the word of God without interruption. And of course, when we are seated at the end of the pew, we are courteous to other members of the community as they arrive by sliding in and moving over so they will not have to climb over us to get to a seat.

Many of us have experienced the challenge of bringing young children to church. It’s a struggle to teach them proper church etiquette like not talking out loud or climbing under the pew. We bring along a good children’s prayer book with pictures to teach them about God rather than the latest Stars Wars toy to play with. But we also know that sometimes, to avoid distracting those around us, it is necessary to take a youngster out when they are not coping well with the situation.

After Mass, we move outside to socialize so we do not distract others who are preparing for the next liturgy. I have only scratched the surface. But we must remember that this Mass is the pinnacle of our faith, the center of our lives as Catholics. It is here that we are nourished and strengthened by Jesus word and his body and blood. We are the church, the family of the Lord, built on the rock which is Peter. When we come here to worship, this church building is truly sacred and what we do here is more important than anything else we do. Let us act and worship accordingly.