Source and Summit #9 – Cincluding Rite

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Source and Summit #9 – Cincluding Rite

My dear listeners!

Now we finalize explaining, interpreting and deepening of our awareness and participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as we focus on the concluding rite. This is the time of God’s blessing on the faithful and the dismissal which concludes our participation in this Holy Sacrifice. The time that we take the peace of God with us to our homes.
Before the blessing and dismissal, usually the priest, will make announcements of upcoming parish events and provide pertinent, information affecting Church life. It is important to remember that it is respectful and polite to remain until dismissed. We should never leave before the blessing and the end of the final hymn. It is very important that we are to the end, that we really await this final blessing and the moment of dismissal and sending. The Holy Mass has amazing dynamics. The presiding priest represents God himself as he sends us forth. The priest bestows the blessing on the faithful while standing near the sacrificial altar. As we accept God’s blessing, we can interpret it as a parental blessing – a bit like a mom or dad who send their children on their way with a blessing of love. It is reminiscent of the times when our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did the same. Although it happens less frequently today, the custom of blessing children on their way seems to be making a comeback. Their words are really a wish for success and happiness as they say. May God go with you. With God’s blessing, go into a world that is not easy, in which there are certainly many temptations, one way or the other.
We can be really safe and happy if we are aware that God is coming with me, who said the word to me, who spoke to my heart, who fed me with his Body, with his holy Blood. He is blessing me now, for this path, for my life.
An extremely important moment, very dynamic. We don’t finish Mass after the dismissal. It can be said that this second part of our lives with the Holy Mass begins now, so whether we really experienced this meeting with Jesus seriously or let ourselves be touched by Jesus. Now we are to be witnesses of what happened here, we are to bear witness by our lives that we truly believe, that we trust that Jesus really showed us the right way. We need to recognize that we are responsible for giving testimony of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We have been changed. We are returning changed for the better to our homes, to our families, to our jobs. We give a clear testimony by this change in our life through this experience, this meeting with the living God. How important it is for each of us to receive God’s blessing for this testimony. The priest blesses us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And just as we started the Mass with the sign of the cross, now we end the Mass with the sign of the cross as we receive God’s blessing.
The priest says to us: Go in the peace of Christ. Go then, don’t stop. Go into this world. Do not be afraid of this world, but change it, let it be beautiful. This world is what it is, but after all, each of us can make it beautiful. Each of us! It is important that we engage in this transformation of the world. I am reminded of a story from the life of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Once a journalist asked her a question: “Mother, can this world be better?” Then she said: “I think if I am better and you are better, this world will be better”. Imagine now: If – and there is this custom in many Polish families, especially in some parts of Poland – after the Sunday Eucharist celebration with the community, all return home filled with God. Just imagine what changes can be made to make our world a better place. I invite you, dear friends, to take an active part in the Sunday Mass together – Not children separately, young separately, or older separately, but together as a family as those who are aware that God is blessing us. Let’s go together whenever possible. Sometimes it’s not for various reasons, but let’s go together. And then see: if you can continue the celebration at home. Save Sunday for your family, for yourself. What a blessing it would be to extend this celebration from the church into our homes and our families to create a home “upper room.” Our very own place where we continue to celebrate being with God. In this way we do not deny God, we profess that our God is not only present in the church, but Our God is present everywhere. Wherever we go, we go with God.
I am asking you very much for this awareness: we have been changed, fed. Christ has shown us the way, and now we are coming to life with His blessing. Let this awareness accompany us so that we are not alone on this path of life. It was obviously such a simple, catechism message, maybe there was a preaching in it, but all that it was a living message. That it wasn’t so empty, that this letter of the law would not be dead. Beloved, we have a great gift and mystery of the Eucharist. We need to draw the most from this mystery of the Eucharist to produce change in each of us, to make us beautiful people, beautiful children of God. Finally, in the words of the priest of Ars, Saint John Vianney: who would once say such a sentence: “If we knew the secrets of the Eucharist and priesthood to the end, we would have to die. Die not from fear, but from delight.” Are we able to admire this secret? It certainly depends a lot on us, but let us love the Eucharist. Let us love Christ in the Eucharist, let us love this mystery of God’s living presence in the Tabernacle. He is with us. Let’s adore him; let us try to look at Him and our lives will become better through his grace. I wish you this with all my heart. God bless you all.

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