Go in Peace, Go Online, Go Make Peace
We should take literally the command at the end of
Mass: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! Having
gathered together as the church, having listened
together to Gods word and having shared the
Eucharist, we are sent out to go and give to others what
we have received here: fullness of life and love, justice
and charity, mercy and peace. Remember sharing the
sign of peace? To introduce the significant ritual
gesture, the priest says the first words that the risen
Christ says to the disciples on Easter evening: I leave
you peace, my peace I give you. In the gospel of
John, Jesus completes his greeting of peace with these
words: As the Father has sent me, so I send you
(John 20:21). Thus, at the end of Mass, we are sent
forth by the presider or the deacons
admonition to Go in peace to love and serve the
Lord. Thanks be to God! we exclaim, and part
of that means, Yes, we will go, I will go, and
love and serve the Lord by loving and serving the
poor and those at war, the needy and the
oppressed.
In one sense, this admonition and our promise is
general: Having shared in this Eucharist, becoming
what we have eaten and drunk, we live our whole lives
in loving service of Gods justice, ready to be broken
like bread and poured out like wine so that others may
be nourished and live. This is what St. Paul is talking
about when he tells us who are baptized that we must
present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God (Romans 12:1). Having completed
our Eucharist (for the time being, until next Sunday),
we must not merely think good thoughts, we must do
something, we must act. In other words, we must put
our bodies on the line, whether its the soup
kitchen serving line or the protest line,
whether its going to the front line or erasing
the line in the sand.
So, in another sense, the admonition to go in peace to
love and to serve, and our resulting promise, is
specific: We cannot say, OK, Ill get around to loving
and serving in some way sometime this week. We
should leave Mass with a certain sense of urgency:
What-exactly what-am I going to do now?
Copyright
Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgical Training Publications, 1980. North
Hermitage Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622-1101: 800-933-1800. Text by
David Philippart, Illustration by Luba Lukova.
This information has
been reprinted from Holy Cross' Sunday Bulletins
Holy Cross Catholic Church - Batavia, IL -- Page Last
Updated 03 Apr 2007
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