A hard truth about being the true Church

A hard truth about being the true Church

Third Sunday of Advent

“[T]he liturgy . . . is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (“Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” 2).

Friends, I’m here to tell you a hard truth. We haven’t done a good enough job of manifesting to others the real nature of the true Church. Our family and friends and coworkers in ministry might get it, and what we experience as leaders at our liturgies might be different. But take a photo of any typical assembly on Sunday, ministers and people, and look at their faces. If a stranger saw those faces, would they know that the real nature of the true Church is to rejoice always in God our Savior? If they walked through your doors, would they sense that the spirit of the Lord has anointed us to bring glad tidings?

On this Gaudete Sunday, let us make a promise to manifest in the liturgy the real nature of the true Church through our faces and our actions. Click To Tweet

If they’re lucky, maybe they’ll hear a lector say “rejoice always” with some actual joy. If your community is extraordinary, maybe a Communion minister will make eye contact and smile at them as they say, “the Body of Christ.” Unfortunately, many people this day will not experience that.

On this Gaudete Sunday, let us make a promise to manifest in the liturgy the real nature of the true Church through our faces and our actions.

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This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”
Image credit: Photo by Quynh Tran on Unsplash.

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