(DN 7:13-14; PS 93:1, 1-2, 5; RV 1:5-8; JN 18:33B-37)
People say that the Mass is a little slice of Heaven. Priests preach this. The Church affirms this. They say that the Mass – specifically when the bread and wine are consecrated into the precious Body and Blood of Christ – is Heaven on Earth.
To be honest, I’ve had a hard time feeling this. I’ve never quite understood it. I’ve always heard that Heaven is an eternal Mass – the eternal worship of God – and that in Heaven, we just sit around singing and praising and worshipping God.
To be honest, this never sounded much like “Heaven” to me. Until recently.
There were around a million, and the day started far from Heaven. There was anxiety over where we needed to be and how soon we needed to leave. Then there were the lines. The security, the likes of which I had never seen, was out in full force. We got to our spot, and it was 6 hours until Mass. We had a lot of time to kill. A lot of time to be tired, hungry, cranky, and everything in-between.
There was the excitement and anticipation of our Holy Father as he arrived to the area – embarking on his parade around the parkway on his way to the Eakins Oval, where the stage and altar were setup before the Museum of Art. The crowd was excited. Pushing and squeezing together, just to get a glimpse. At one point, it was a little disconcerting as we were worried about being toppled by a mass of people.
But as Pope Francis passed and made his way to the altar – the anxiety and worry subsided. The music started playing. The Cardinals and Bishops processed in, and then there was the Pope, proceeding up the steps, genuflecting, and kissing the altar just as countless priests do throughout the world every day.
He turned and faced the crowd…
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Amen. The Mass had begun.
At that very instant – what moments ago had been an excited, exuberant, and almost raucous crowd – immediately went silent. You could hear a pin drop. Before, I was concerned as to whether or not this would even seem like Mass, but at this point, as I closed my eyes in prayer, I felt as if I was sitting in my parish back at home. Except it was quieter.
And then he said, “Kyrie Eleison”. And the crowd responded in forceful unison – “KYRIE ELEISON”! It just echoed, and it was so powerful! I got chills. We all looked around. I knew this was different.
And the Mass continued. People from all over the world, numerous different languages, all together – praising Him. Just as the Prophet Daniel said in todays reading – “all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.” This was it. All peoples. All nations. All languages. Together for one purpose. For one truth.
It was beautiful. More beautiful than words can express. Tears of joy and love filled my eyes.
For the first time ever – I finally understood what I have been told all those years and what I have read about the Mass. I was experiencing a little slice of Heaven here on Earth. This was Heaven. This was a little sliver of Christ’s Kingdom here on Earth.
The look in my wife’s eyes, the look in my mother’s eyes when we received Holy Communion. How I observed the reverence from my son as he kneeled on the street, even when most were standing. It was a deeper, more spiritual way than I have ever looked at anyone before. Beyond the maternal relationship. Beyond the Sacramental bond of Marriage. Beyond the bond of fatherhood. This was love and beauty at its core.
I didn’t want it to end.
And the thing is, this is just something that this average Catholic from Indiana experienced one day here on Earth. If that’s how I felt here in this world, how amazing and beautiful and purely incomprehensible must the full glory of Heaven be, Christ’s Kingdom! I want that feeling back. I yearn for it. Every day.
And so that’s what these readings today mean to me. On this Christ the King Sunday, Jesus tells us that His kingdom is not of this Earth. It is something more. Something greater. Something more amazing and incomprehensible to us humans. But we know that it is good. Because He gives us glimpses. He gives us a sneak peak, every day in Mass. And the Sacraments.
It took me the greater part of my 38 years to realize this. It took me being together with people of all races, nationalities, languages, demographics, economic profiles and countless other differences to realize that we are all the same. That we are here on earth in a symbiotic relationship with one another and with God, working together to establish His Kingdom, even with all the evil that is around us.
In how we treat others and interact with others, we affect each other and we affect His kingdom – for better or worse. In how we treat others, and the choices and decisions we make as individuals, we affect not only our own path, but also the paths of so many people around us.
We feed off one another. We impact each other. Good or bad. But if we choose the good, His truth, and we realize that while Christ’s true Kingdom is not of this Earth, yet He is all around us – we can help to establish His Kingdom.
We can be a witness – a living example – and help all who we interact with see this truth, and see the path to Heaven, and His eternal kingdom.
I never understood this until recently, until I was together with a million other people, all seeking the same thing. When I took part in and heard the powerful Psalm response, the reciting of the Creed, the people kneeling on the street during the Consecration and singing the Lords Prayer – only then did I truly realize the power and significance of the Mass, and what it truly means. And what a gift it is.
It is what we should strive for. It is what we should seek out more than once a week. Christ gives us snippets of His Kingdom in the Mass through the Eucharist, and in Reconciliation, in our Baptisms, in our Confirmation of our commitment to our faith, in our Marriages, in our Anointing’s, and in our Ordinations. These are the little pieces of Heaven, of Christ’s Kingdom, available to us here on Earth. They all bring about His grace. The all help us to establish His Kingdom in each other, and to pave the way for our eternal life.
We can experience it. It doesn’t take a million people or a Papal visit to make it happen. That’s what made me see it. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can experience pieces of His kingdom in the everyday. We can help establish it in others around us, planting the seeds for eternity.
Earth is not Heaven. But there is a little bit of Heaven on Earth. Amidst all the suffering, and violence and evil – there are pieces of Heaven here through Christ’s grace and His Sacraments, and in other people, and in what He has created around us. There is Heaven in the Mass, right here on Earth, and we should yearn for it’s full glory and splendor.
This little bit of Heaven on Earth, can get us to Heaven for eternity.
