An Explanation of the Holy Mass
Torah Scroll 1
An Explanation of the Holy Mass
Torah Scroll 1
Liturgy of the Word
The Old Testament shows the early believers in God with all their faults, mistakes, and sins. It is clear that they need a Savior, but God waits until the proper time. In fact, God is very patient with the people of the Old Testament. He meets them where they are at, and slowly brings them along until they are ready to hear the Good News. David was the most beloved king, yet he was an adulterer, and plotted the murder of Bathsheba’s husband.
When the genealogy of Jesus is given in the Gospels of Matthew (1:1-17) and Luke (3:23-38), they are sinners all. The story of the beginning of our Judeo-Christian faith is that of sinners in need of God, and God never abandoning us.
In order to understand who we are, we need to understand our history; we need to know about our past. As children in school we learn about American History. The events in our nation’s history have formed us as a country and as the American people. We are a nation of immigrants. Most of the people in this country trace their roots to people who came to this country from somewhere else. We are a people looking for a better life. We have been formed by revolution, war, and compared to most nations, spectacular success. Americans like to compete and win. We are not accustomed to losing, and we don’t like it when we do. We like to think we are independent. Our history has formed us.
In the third Mad Max movie there are a group of children who have become stranded and learned how to survive on their own. In their own way, they tell their story as they remember it, so that those who come after them will know where they came from, and how they came to be where they were. Telling their story was important to their identity.
Families have been formed by their history. We tell the stories of our relatives when we gather. Their faults and quirks are also ingrained in us. Those traits are passed down the generational blood line. By learning about them, we come to understand ourselves, and why we do those strange things we do.
During the Liturgy of the Word, we learn about our Judeo-Christian roots. We hear the stories of those who lived long ago, but whose actions we can learn from, and whose actions still impact us today. We hear the letters to the early Christian communities and discover that their problems are often our problems too. Human nature hasn’t changed, and we are still in need of a Savior. Yes, we hear about Him too. We hear the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the miracles he performed.
During the Liturgy of the Word we remind ourselves of who we are, where we’ve come from, and what God has done for us. What God has done in the past, He continues to do. He still wants us to be holy, and he wants us to be with Him in heaven. And He still hasn’t given up on us. We need those reminders every time we go to mass. The Liturgy of the Word is important to knowing who we are, and what God has done, and will continue to do for us.
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