Faith and Family / Sean Gallagher
The Mass strengthens family ties across space and time
In each celebration of the Eucharist, our Lord breaks down the walls of time and space. No matter where we might be or when the Mass takes place, the grace of God in each liturgy brings worshippers to the upper room where Christ gathered with his disciples on that first Holy Thursday.
And not just that. Each Mass also embraces the event to which the Last Supper led, our Lord’s death for us all on Calvary the next day.
As beautiful as this mystical reality at the heart of our faith may be, the distractions of daily life can make it abstract at times. After all, the busyness of family life and jobs—not to mention the constant binging of notifications on our smart phones—can make putting ourselves into a scene 2,000 years ago and half a world away a real challenge.
Maybe, though, our Lord can use our experience of faith in our families as a way to draw us closer to him in the Last Supper in the Mass celebrated here and now.
On Sept. 27, 2015, I called my mom while waiting with nearly 1 million others for the start of a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
She and Dad had done so much to plant seeds of faith in my heart. With the water of God’s grace, they had blossomed to the point where I was sharing stories of faith in The Criterion and, more importantly, seeking with my wife Cindy to plant seeds of faith in the hearts of our sons.
Mom was struggling with her health and was hospitalized at the time. So, as I awaited the start of this historic Mass, I wanted to share something of it with her who had done so much to make me a man of faith.
She died less than a month later. But she and my dad, who died in 2022, continue today to live very much in my heart when I worship at Mass.
And what’s true about the ties of faith and love that bind us to our loved ones beyond space and time are also there linking us to a larger family—the family of the faithful both alive today and those throughout the history of the Church.
The Mass celebrated today is rooted in the liturgy that has fed the souls of saints of all times and places. This is true for a daily Mass in a small parish church we might attend with a handful of other worshippers.
It’s also true when Catholics from across central and southern Indiana gather with tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters in faith from across the country in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for celebrations of the Mass during the National Eucharistic Congress.
The Holy Spirit will draw all the worshippers at the congress from so many cultural backgrounds together as one just as it happens across time.
Our Lord, who in his eternity transcends all space and time, loves us so much that he makes us one with him in the boundless life of the Trinity that he is with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The way that this happens for us on this side of eternity is first and foremost through the Mass. What Christ began at the Last Supper continues here and now in every Eucharist, including those to be celebrated at the congress.
The Eucharist is the way that Christ draws us as a family of faith into the endless life and love of the Trinity. †