One Mass, So Many Opinions

As we were preparing for the liturgies of Holy Week, a colleague came up to me and said, “I think the Good Friday liturgy is so boring, I mean how many times can we sing Jesus, Remember Me?” That same week, a parishioner came up to me and said, “I can’t wait until Good Friday. That’s my favorite liturgy! I could sing Jesus Remember Me all night!” I myself have come out of Mass less than satisfied with the particular preaching that day only to hear someone exclaim to the priest or deacon, “Thank you, the words in your homily were exactly what I needed to hear today.”

As this example illustrates, we all perceive sights, sounds, and the very world around us very differently. With this in mind, we often plan liturgies wondering, what moves people? What engages people? How in the world can we become one body when we are so different?

Then I remind myself of the answers. What moves people? The Holy Spirit moves people. What engages people? The Holy Spirit engages people. How can we become one body? The Holy Spirit unites us. This is why we pray to the Spirit during Mass:

            Grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son

            and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.

                                                                                                 Eucharistic Prayer III

Only the Spirit of God can unite us. The Spirit moves as it wills, mysteriously over and above the grasp of our intellect or imagination. If we are open to it, this kind of unity moves us beyond our own needs to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ. So the next time you sing your least favorite song at Mass or think that some element of the liturgy was too dry, too long, too boring, too repetitive, too (fill in the blank). Rejoice and trust that the Spirit is at work.