Something New Every Time

I try to sit in the first few pews of church during Mass so I can focus on all the parts and words. In doing so, I’ve found that going to Mass can be like a book I read or a movie I watch over and over. I catch something new every time. Not that the Mass itself is new, but rather a word or a phrase in a prayer that I’ve recited for decades stands out and gives me something new to ponder or turns me to scripture to read more in depth.

The word “co-heirs” was one such word that caused me to pause, to sit up a little straighter, to consider what that means beyond me being a child of God. I found it to warm my heart with the knowledge of His vast love, at the same time it humbled me with a desire to act more worthy of such an inheritance.

“Crucified under Pontius Pilate” was one such phrase. While Pilate wasn’t the only villain in Christ’s Passion story, he’s the only one called out by name by millions of voices every Sunday. No matter his declaration, “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” nearly two thousand years later we are still saying his name. What a powerful reminder of our responsibility to stand for righteousness even in the face of opposition.

Almost two weeks ago, following along with the Palm Sunday Responsorial Psalm “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (from Psalm 22), I turned to my son sitting next to me and whisper-asked if he knew where it came from. Immediately he said, “when Jesus was on the cross.” (I could hear the “duh” in his voice and see it on his face). But then I pointed to the notation of “Psalm 22” with the verses from which the words were taken to remind him this is Old Testament. He turned wide eyes to me and in true teenager fashion gestured, “mind blown.” I whispered, “Aren’t the prophetic words of King David and Isaiah amazing?!”

Hopefully he will grow to listen intently enough to make his own connections and catch something new.

This first week of Easter is one filled with the joy of our Risen Lord, and this year one filled with the celebration of Pope Francis’s life. This reflection of my Mass experience reminds me of what Pope Francis said of the Mass: “The liturgy does not leave us alone to search out an individual supposed knowledge of the mystery of God. Rather, it takes us by the hand, together, as an assembly, to lead us deep within the mystery that the word and the sacramental signs reveal to us.”

My prayer is to never lose the awe and wonder with which I’m filled attending the great gift of the Mass.