Our Liturgical Muscles

My friend Dennis is an exercise fanatic.  He’s a marathon runner.  He  swims, cycles and does yoga.   He preaches the ‘gospel’ of exercise, seeking to inspire others with his vim, vigor and overall enthusiasm for life.  He understands what a difference being physically active has made and wants to share that with others.   So, he’s constantly calling couch potatoes into a regular routine of being physically active.  

The Church is constantly calling us to move from being pew potatoes to being active participants in the liturgy.  The Church understands what a difference it makes when we actively participate in spirit, mind and body.  One of the most quoted phrases from the Second Vatican Council calls the Eucharist the "source and summit of the whole Christian life.”   But, what the document really says is that the community’s participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life.  (Lumen Gentium) Another document from Vatican II says that our “full, conscious, and active participation is demanded by the very nature of liturgy.”  It calls our participation not only our right but our “duty” as baptized Christians.  (Sacrosanctum Concilium)

The revision of the Roman Missal is yet another opportunity for us to take these documents seriously; to engage more fully in the liturgy, to make a conscious effort to stay present, to listen attentively, to pray fervently and to sing with full hearts and voices. 

When Dennis first became serious about exercise, he awakened muscles in his body that he never knew existed.  Perhaps if we take our participation in the liturgy to heart, we will awaken new graces that we never knew existed.    Dennis, at 60, is running the famous Athens Marathon in Greece this Sunday.  May our  “full, active and conscious participation” in the liturgy sustain us with the stamina to run the marathon of life.  AMEN.