At the end of every Mass, we are urged to "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord." The new language of the Order of Mass which will be implemented in the US next year has a new option, which is, "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life." The two are seen as equivalent by the Church: loving and serving the Lord means living the faith.
It means being the "good Samaritan" as we heard about last Sunday.
It means striving for justice in our world, as we are told time and again by Jesus and the prophets who came before him.
It means being a force for reconciliation, not only between ourselves and one another, but also between polarizing forces in our world.
And it is (or should be) the Church's liturgy that causes us to see what must be done and to provide an example of how we are to live between Sundays. More on this in the coming weeks.
Copyright © 2010, Deacon Carl D. Smith. All rights reserved. Reprint permission granted to parishes for use in Sunday bulletins. (http://bit.ly/16p8ws)
