We pray what we believe, and we believe that Jesus has set us free from sin and death by His death and Resurrection. We also believe that in our worship, especially at Mass, the Lord continues the work of our renewal and sanctification. In our prayers, both communal and private, we join our sacrifices to the Lord’s, asking Him to purify our hearts and minds with grace from on high. For example, we pray, “Make of us an eternal offering to you.”
It is never wise to take the Eucharist (or any other prayer) for granted. The Eucharist, after all, is the most powerful force in the universe. In our communal worship, heaven is brought to earth, and earth is lifted up and offered to heaven. With this in mind, we cannot simply listen to the words of our prayers passively, as if we are an “audience.” We need to make the words our own and live them passionately, praying to grow in holiness and to achieve the promise of our immortality and eternal gladness.
In this time between the Ascension of the Lord and the celebration of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, we remember that Jesus has unlocked for us the gates of eternity, and so our life now is destined for the glory of heaven and the Resurrection. The encouraging thing about this is that everything we do on earth, we can do with our hearts fixed on our heavenly homeland. And our longing for heaven only increases and intensifies the love that we have for our neighbors on earth.
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Church honors the first “Pope John” in its history today. Saint John I was a martyr for the faith, imprisoned and likely starved to death by a heretical Germanic king during the sixth century. John I was chosen to become the Bishop of Rome in 523 and died in 526. The king in question was Theodoric. Like many of his fellow tribesmen, he adhered to the Arian heresy, holding that Christ was a created being rather than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Arians refused to accept the Nicene Creed’s expression “…one in being with the Father.” We recall again the ancient principle: “We pray what we believe, we believe what we pray.” If we didn’t believe that Jesus is “one in being with the Father,” we wouldn’t profess our faith in such a way; but we do!
