Engaging in Joy
The
Mass has started, the hymns are being recited, and the liturgical automatic
response is all but engaged. The lay are half aware of which portion of the
liturgy they are reacting to. In their, mostly inconvenienced tone, they mumble
through the creeds and confessions and proclamations. The monotone, unemotional
communion of lay people and clergy –yes, even clergy- seem to be strictly
paying their weekly dues.
Understand that if you are Christian
then you are striving to be able to sing to God 24/7, to praise Him day in and
day out, and that mass, in its purest form, will be for eternity.
Joy can be perceived as knowing that
you are saved by the blood, that you are adopted by the Father, and that,
regardless of your faults and mistakes, He loves you. Despite your failures and
weaknesses He forgives you, and He will never forsake you. Joy can be perceived
this way because of the freedom that you are granted by knowing that, no matter
the peak you ascend to or the valley you struggle through, God –not only- knows
your heart, knows your needs, but has gone before you to defeat your battles
and deliver you. Then and only then can we understand that the true measure of
our deliverance is based solely on our submission and obedience to the Father.
It begins with shouting Alleluia in
church. It starts when we accept it into our lives as a fundamental truth and
break the monotone rhetoric. It reveals itself when we take hold of our faith
and apply it. We see it only after we know the creeds and proclamations and
confessions by heart. We discover it after we learn why we proclaim and confess
all that we do. It manifests itself when we take it home, to work, and continue
it through our day to day lives. Solely focusing our lives around the Eucharist
allows us to accept His gift of joy as a part of ourselves no matter the
situation we find ourselves in, where we journeyed from, or where we may head.
Shout for joy and proclaim the one true faith.
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