Understanding the Eucharist

The Mass Series:

PART 4 – LITURGY OF THE WORD – READINGS

Once the arc of the Introductory Rites is complete, we begin the first of the two great sections of the Mass.  That’s the Liturgy of the Word.

Now, the Liturgy of the Word is the Word of God speaking to the heart of God’s people and doing so primarily through scripture.

Now, we know the Bible was composed by human beings.  It wasn’t dropped magically from some pink cloud or from heaven.  But what we say is that in these human words there is contained the Word of the God who always takes flesh even in the words of a book.

So, if we have the ears that can hear there is a voice to be heard which is the voice of God.

So, in this moment God wants to enter into dialogue or conversation with His people.  He speaks to us a word that is old, but always new.  It’s not that we’re passive in listening to the Word that is old but always new. It’s not that we’re passive in listening to that Word – we have to listen with the ears of Faith and enter into the dialogue or conversation.

Now, the first reading is usually taken from what we call the Old Testament.  Now, sometimes in calling it the Old Testament we can give the impression that it’s really out of business.  It’s finished.  It’s old and worn out.  But that’s not true.

The Old Testament, so called, is as much the Word of God to us here and now as it was every once upon a time when it was addressed to people thousands of years ago.  Once God speaks to us through that first reading, we have listened, and then we respond with the Responsorial Psalm which is our response to the word that God has spoken.  So, again you have that conversational dialogue which continues.

And after the Responsorial Psalm you have the second reading, where the conversation continues, where again God speaks now through one of the texts of the New Testament – one of the letters of St Paul.  Again, the words you hear are St Paul’s, but at a deeper point there is the voice of God that sounds.  And that means the voice of Jesus Christ.

After the second reading we sing the Alleluia or we say the Alleluia which is a way of preparing to hear the words of Christ Himself.  Alleluia simply means “Praise God”. Again we’re praising God for the gift of the words He speaks to us.

And then we hear the words of Christ Himself in the Gospel and that is the epicentre really of this Liturgy of the Word.

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