Eucharist and Life - Part 2
Being called together is at the heart of being Church. Its very name, ecclesia, means “those called forth, duly summoned for an assembly.” It is God who summons the Church together, and our preeminent gathering is for celebration of the Eucharist. Implementation of the revised Roman Missal offers us an excellent opportunity to reflect on our calling in light of the Eucharist. What is the deeper meaning of what we do at Mass, and what does that have to do with daily Christian life in the world? To what does Eucharist call us?
2. Called Together to Listen to God’s Word
In the Liturgy of the Word we listen to the Word of God proclaimed for our belief and response. Special reverence is paid to the Gospel book that was carried in. It is again held aloft, acclaimed, and incensed to remind us and to celebrate that Christ speaks to us when the Gospel is proclaimed (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 7). So that we can hear the meaning the Scriptures have for our daily lives, the homilist breaks them open for us just as Jesus did in his hometown synagogue of Nazareth when he said “today this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). Thus the Gospel is not only the story of what Jesus did and said, it is also to become the story fulfilled in our lives.
We know, as Cardinal Joseph Bernardin reminds us, that listening is a skill that grows dull in the barrage of words that surrounds us every day (Guide for the Assembly,pp. 11-12). We have learned to turn off our ears to talk radio, 24-hour news casts, the incessant noise around us, and sadly, even at times to the words of those speaking to us. But the art of listening can be re-learned. The Liturgy of the Word, Bernardin goes on to say, is a school in which we can learn again the art of listening to the voice of God. What we learn to do in the assembly, we can then do more fully in daily life, listening to the voice of God in the needs of people around us, the needs of our world, and especially the needs of those who are poor and oppressed. It is to their cry that God is particularly attentive, just as we must learn to be. Their cry, however, is often a silent cry drowned out by the din of the world and our preoccupations. At times it is no more than a tiny whispering sound like the prophet Elijah heard outside his cave (1 Kgs 19:12). We need to cultivate the attentiveness of a mother listening for the cry of her newborn child, the readiness of young Samuel to respond: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:10).
Listening for the voice of God in daily life is hard to do, but it grows easier with practice. That enables us to return to the assembly and listen more attentively to the Word of God proclaimed there, and the cycle continues again in daily life. Such listening is not disinterested. After listening to the Word proclaimed, we immediately respond by professing our faith and praying for the needs of our Church and world. Similarly, listening to the needs of others in the course of daily life calls for a response. It must lead us to be good Samaritans who come to their aid with acts of loving service.
To be continued.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
[The reflections in this series are adapted, with permission, from an article to be published inLiturgical Ministry20 (Fall 2011).]
Professor of Liturgy
Director of the Institute for Liturgical Consultants
S.T.L., S.T.D., L.G., Pontifical Athenaeum Antonianum, Rome; Study: Harvard University, University of California
Professor Gil Ostdiek, O.F.M., is a founding faculty member of Catholic Theological Union, an ordained presbyter, and a member of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart. He holds a B.A. from Quincy College, an S.T.L. and S.T.D. from the Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum (Rome), and has done post-doctoral studies at Harvard Divinity School and the University of California/GTU.
Gil has been a member of the Association of Consultants for Liturgical Space (ACLS), the Catholic Academy of Liturgy (CAL), the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL), and Societas Liturgica.
He has received a Festschrift [Finding Voice to Give God Praise: Essays in the Many Languages of the Liturgy, ed. Kathleen Hughes (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1998)]; the 1998 Michael Mathis Award for contributions to liturgical renewal, from the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy; the 2001 Pax et Bonum Award, from St. Peter’s in Chicago; and the 2007 Georgetown Center for Liturgy Award for outstanding contributions to the liturgical life of the American Church.
Gil has taught liturgy at the graduate level for 45 years and has conducted numerous adult education workshops on liturgy. In addition, he has been Vice President/Academic Dean, MDiv Director, and MA Director at CTU, and he was the founding director of the Institute for Liturgical Consultants (ILC) based at CTU. He served on the International Commission on the Liturgy (ICEL) for fifteen years on the Advisory Committee, on the General Editorial Committee for revision of the Sacramentary, and as chair of the Subcommittee on the Translation and Revision of Texts. He was on the Board of Trustees of Quincy University and his province’s Board of Education. Gil is a past-president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, and he has also been a consultant for the American Franciscan Liturgical Commission.
Gil’s hobbies are woodworking and photography.
More about Gil.
