Why should I go to mass reason #5 (A response to love)

Hello all,

I recently had someone email me and ask where reason #5 was for the list of reasons  that I had begun to share about "why go to mass".

I thought I had concluded this list a while ago and I'm sorry to say that I forgot the most important and last one!

A response to love! Reason #5 for why we should go to mass.

In the Sermon on the Plain in Luke chapter 6:20 (and following) we see Jesus preaching the Beatitudes.  That list of beatitudes begins with "Blessed are you who are poor for the Kingdom of God is yours."

When Matthew tells of Jesus preaching of the Beatitudes he tells of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and following. The beginning of this list of beatitudes is "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I think there are many who are poor in our world and they are certainly blest by God.  They are even more blessed by God than those who are rich in spite of the fact that our world sees wealth as a blessing.  

There are also those who suffer from spiritual poverty.  In fact I think most of us suffer spiritual poverty in our culture.  Our culture tells us that things, stuff, possessions, and wealth will make us happy.

If anyone ever really gives this type of offer a try they quickly will find out that stuff doesn't fill the hole that each of us have in our hearts. We all long to be loved.  We all need to know that love, affection, and affirmation of another.  Money can't buy this, wealth can't supply it, and possessions can't fill this hole.

The love of another person can go a long way in filling our need to be loved but even then everyone knows some type of loneliness and longing.  There is some type of emotional need that even other people can't fill.

The only think that can fill this need is God.  St. Augustine, famously said, 

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

This is our struggle.  This is the struggle that everyone shares in.  This is what it is to be "Poor in Spirit"

Spiritual wealth is to know and plunge into the love of God.  Yet, we so often plunge into the love of wealth and the collection of possessions.   In so doing we grow in our spiritual poverty even as we amass material wealth.  

Spiritual wealth is to know, even in some small way, the love of God.  This knowledge, this experience, this assurance that God is for us, supporting us, encouraging us, and blessing us is a profound things.

This experience of God's love changes our lives.  I don't think it will make life easier.  There will still be the temptation to seek material wealth to fill the void that can only be filled by God.  But once we have tasted the love of God we too, like St. Augustine, hunger and thirst for more.  

This is reason #5 for why we should go to Mass.  Our worship of God, within a community, is a seeking of God.  We know that in some special way God is to be found in the ancient ritual, the reading of the Word of God, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and in the community of fellow Christians who are gathered.

I don't know of anyone who has known what it was like to be loved and then they weren't different.  Usually when someone loves us we love them in response and that changes our lives, our behavior, and our priorities.

Look at teenagers who experience their first taste of love.  They change, they behave differently, and they act (especially around their beloved) differently.  This is a beautiful thing!
Look at young adults who love and know that they are loved.  They willingly give up huge amounts of their time, money, and autonomy and share their lives with each other.  They marry and then new life is the product of love.

In our culture we tend to celebrate individualism and we believe that we don't need others to be happy. That's not true.  We need love.  We need to be loved.  And we need to love and be loved by our creator.  It's just who we are.

So communal worship, at mass, is a response to being loved.  I attend mass because I long to love He who loved me first.

I think the reason that mass attendance is declining is primarily because our culture is so "poor in spirit".  So few people know what it is to be loved by God and so they don't even think to love God back.

When we do love God in return then we willingly participate in a ritual of love, the mass.
When we like a sport we willingly participate in it.  We play that sport, attend games, or watch it on TV.
When we love our country we attend parades, observe national holidays, fly a flag, and vote.

The idea that love of something changes our behavior isn't abnormal.  In fact our behavior is the best indication of what we love.

So we go to mass as a response to knowing the love of God and seeking to love Him in response.  It is in Mass that we encounter Him in a special and powerful way.  So we go to mass as a response to love.