What Does God Think of Our Mass?
Reading Isaiah this morning is really negative. God is tired of their offerings. He does not want more incense. He does not want their sacrifices. No more festivals, no more prayer meetings, no more of nothing. All of this burdens God and He is tired of it all.
Now granted Isaiah is several hundred years before Christ but in Jewish law their ceremonies were carefully thought out and carried out with great reverence and watchful to do every detail according to their liturgical rites.
Remember mass yesterday? We took great care to follow the liturgical very carefully not wanting to add or delete any one single thing. Was God satisfied with our mass? Did He accept our praise and worship? Should we have sang more hymns? Should we sing louder? Should we use incense at every mass? Should we do more chanting? When God is watching our mass do you think He is accepting what we are offering?
Here is the last quote from Isaiah’s reading today:
When you spread out your hands,
I close my eyes to you;
Though you pray the more,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood!
Wash yourselves clean!
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
What are we supposed to do? Read on:
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
I would propose that when we are at Mass God wants to see how our liturgy will make justice our aim. When we are offering praise to God are we thinking how we will redress the wronged? Do our hymns encourage to hear the orphan’s plea and inspire us to go and defend widows? If not why not?
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen