Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever been to Heaven? Sit with that question for a moment. Have you ever been to Heaven? I’m assuming that most, if not all of you, answered “no,” perhaps even with a parenthetical (well that’s a silly question!). I would counter, yes, you have – you have been to heaven! We enter the eternal, heavenly worship every time we participate in the Mass. Our first reading today from Revelation gives us a glimpse of what we experience in each Eucharist. I pray that we might be inspired today to approach each Mass with the same kind of awe, reverence, joy, and ecstatic praise that John the Apostle describes. I pray also that this heavenly worship transforms our everyday lives into heavenly worship as we offer our whole selves in service to God and neighbor.
In each Mass, as the priest begins the Eucharistic prayer, he says, “Lift up your hearts.” We respond, “We lift them up to the Lord.” At that moment, we enter the throne room of heaven where John’s vision takes place and we join with all the Saints, angels, and heavenly beings, and together worship God and cry out our praise.
In John’s vision, the four living creatures exclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.” This vision is like that of the prophet Isaiah. He saw seraphim crying out similarly, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). This song of worship and reverence forms the Sanctus, which we acclaim in every Mass. In our reading from Revelation, when the four living creatures cry out the Sanctus, the twenty-four elders fall prostrate before God. Similarly, Isaiah cries, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips . . . and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isa. 6:5). During Mass, immediately following the Sanctus, we kneel. This is no insignificant or random posture – no! We literally fall to our knees after exclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty . . .” As we pray with John’s vision today, let us be moved and inspired to come to every Eucharist with a new or renewed humility, awe, wonder, and reverence. Let us ask God for the graces to come ready to enter the very throne room of Heaven and to be like the heavenly beings, offering our deep, complete, and extravagant worship. In John’s vision, he saw an open door to heaven, and a voice saying, “Come.” I pray that by God’s grace we each might see that open door and hear God’s beckoning voice bid us “Come.”
When the twenty-four elders fall prostrate before God, they cast their crowns before the throne and cry, “Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.” Let us today prayerfully ponder what it means to cry out, “Worthy are you, God.” What is God worthy of to you? What does it mean to ascribe worth to God? Is God worthy of your best, your best in worship, your best in loving God and loving neighbor? Is God worthy of all of you, or are there parts of you that you withhold from God? The word “worship” comes from an Old English word that can be transliterated as “worth-ship.” Basically, it means to ascribe worth to someone or something, to venerate it, to honor it. As you think about entering the heavenly worship during each Eucharist, how might this definition of worship help you to approach God more reverently, earnestly, or sincerely?
In our Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a nobleman going off and leaving ten gold coins to each of ten servants. When the nobleman returns from his journey, he evaluates how well each servant has stewarded the coins with which he was entrusted. God gives us gifts, talents, charisms, abilities, temperaments, and God calls us to discipleship – to love and follow Jesus with all that we have and all that we are. This is worship. As we leave each Mass, as we leave the Eucharistic banquet and our celebration with the heavenly hosts, we don’t leave worship behind until the next Sunday. I pray that today we might prayerfully ponder what it means to worship God with our very lives, because we are fueled and filled by Jesus’ very life in the Eucharist. Isn’t that heavenly worship brought to earth?!
May heavenly worship inspire each of us to be more authentic worshippers, both during the Mass and throughout each week. God bless you!
Elizabeth Wells