Today’s Gospel is a warning to us of how people can be in the company of the Lord and at the same time be far from Him. This can be the same for us with regards to Mass. The Lord is extremely generous and wants to give us an abundance of blessings and graces, especially at Mass. But because we are free, the Lord does not force His grace upon us. We are free to accept His grace or not and it is sad to see a heart closed to the grace of God. Our hearts can be closed for many reasons but one of the most dangerous and subtle ways we close our hearts is because of routine. We can close our hearts to the grace that God wants to give us at Mass if Mass has becomes just a routine for us. The Lord is not asking us to go to Mass because of routine, but because of love. The Lord does not desire a routine for us but a loving relationship with us.
The answer of the people locked out in today’s Gospel is ‘we once ate and drank in Your company’. At Mass we eat and drink in the company of the Lord. We eat His flesh and drink His blood in the Eucharist. Jesus in the Eucharist gives Himself completely in love for us so that we can become His love present in the world for others. Jesus told St Faustina how so many people were receiving the Eucharist out of routine; “when I come to a soul in Holy Communion My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay attention to Me; they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things….they treat Me as a dead object“(Diary 1385). Has the Eucharist become a routine for us, or are we aware that we are receiving Jesus truly present and all the grace He wants to give us when we receive the Eucharist?
The other excuse of the people in today’s Gospel is that “You taught in our streets”. Again, at Mass, the Lord teaches in our streets, in our homes, parishes and diocese through His word in the readings of the Mass. Some of the Old Testament readings are more difficult than the New Testament readings but the Word of God is so powerful that even if we do not understand immediately, it speaks to us at a very deep level. With the Readings and the Gospel, the challenge is for us to be open to let the Word of God change our lives so that the Word that the Lord teaches us in our streets will not just remain on the streets, but will find a home deep within our hearts.
One of my favourite sayings of Blessed Mother Teresa is about the Mass and she said it for Priests; “celebrate Mass as if it was your first Mass, your last Mass and your only Mass“. But this saying is not only for us Priests but for everyone. Let’s not let Mass become routine for us because we are the ones who will miss out like the people in the Gospel. Let us attend Mass with hearts that are open to God’s loving presence in His Word, and His presence, body, blood, soul and, divinity in the Eucharist, so that we can get to know the Lord more and more, and bring His love to others.