Corpus Christi - Is Mass Boring?

“Baseball is boring.”

How many of us would agree with that statement? Be honest. Does sitting there, watching a ballgame excite you, or is the apparent lack of activity, endless maneuvering between pitches, commercial breaks, and spitting seem like an eternal hell to you? Think, especially, of what we’d call a “pitchers’ duel,” where there is little scoring or even on-base activity. Pretty boring, right?

However, this is America’s game – our “national pastime.”  I have fond memories of going to Orioles games with my dad (he even used to keep score in his seat), sitting on the floor in front of our TV on summer nights, listening to Chuck Thompson and Brooks Robinson comment on Eddie Murray’s stance or Cal Ripken’s new glove. It was wonderful.

However, a game like golf? I just don’t get that. Seeing tournaments on TV is an immediate call for me to take a nap or to find some other program. I don’t play golf, I don’t understand golf, I can’t even fake it – I don’t know the difference between a sand wedge and a sandwich. I find golf boring.

Now, in baseball, as in all sports, there are nuances -  little things that make the strategy of the game exciting … for those who know. For example, when a team is trailing and a batter sends a fly ball deep to right field and a baserunner can advance or score, that’s good baseball. Yes, the man is out, but we still applaud; because he helped the team with that out – a “sacrifice fly.” For those who don’t know, it’s another moment in the apparently endless game, meaning basically nothing to them.

It’s the knowledge, the awareness that allows a person to enjoy baseball – or any sport or activity, for that matter.

Today, we celebrate Corpus Christi. To an outsider with no Catholic knowledge, that might mean that we are thinking about a city in Texas. However, for us, this is a beautiful feast in which we highlight and appreciate with great reverence and affection the incredible Gift of the Eucharist – the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s a call to us to focus again on the fact that, the night before He died for us, Jesus gave us the Blessed Sacrament as a memorial of His Passion and as a way for Him to be truly present in His Church forever. Each Sunday (or every day, for that matter), we are privileged to come here and be with the Lord in a real way, and He feeds and strengthens us through this miracle of the Eucharist.

You parents out there – especially those with teens – might hear the perennial gripe: “Mass is boring.” And to be fair, if one does not really know what is happening here, it is. We come, sit, listen, stand, sit again, listen some more, sing, stand, kneel, sit – I’m getting tired just describing it! However, that is a perspective that lacks knowledge of what it really happening.

At Mass, here at the Altar, heaven and earth touch. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus, the Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, risen from the dead, actually becomes present because of the words of some shmuck like me! Our prayer and praise are a response to God’s heroic love that has saved us from eternal death and opened for us the way to eternal life. The drama of Calvary is played out on this little wooden table. Everything we do here revolves around that truth.

If Mass is boring, perhaps it’s because we are coming for the wrong things. Coming to Mass and returning bored and disappointed is like going to a baseball game and being upset that you didn’t see any touchdowns. Touchdowns are exciting – so are awesome music, fog machines, laser shows, and dramatic homilies. However, as wonderful as these things are, they are not essential to why we come. We come to have an intimate encounter with the Lord Jesus, who loves us so much. Everyone who comes through these doors, whether they know it or not, are coming for that saving encounter.

Therefore, everything we do should highlight that reality – that Jesus is truly present, and we are blessed to welcome others into this place to experience Him. Yes, the music, preaching, and environment help, but I have celebrated Mass in a hotel room without any of that, and the miracle and encounter were the same.

Corpus Christi is a call to pay attention. Learn about this Gift. Nourish your love for Jesus in the Eucharist. Let me suggest two ways to do that. First, spend time in Jesus’ sacred presence. Come and visit our Blessed Sacrament chapel or Tuesday adoration and simply be in His presence. Allow Jesus to speak to you and cast all your cares on Him. Feel His love.

Second, become a minister of Holy Communion. This is not just for Mass assistance, good as that it. I mean, consider becoming a pastoral visitor who brings Holy Communion to the sick and homebound. These people are longing for Jesus’ presence too. As you do this, you will experience Christ’s love for others in a new way, and you will grow in your awareness of His love for you.

For me, baseball carries with it those fond memories of games with my dad, pick up games with friends, and memorizing stats on the back of bubble gum cards. However, Mass also brings me to those moments of gathering with my family and fellow parishioners, of Forty Hours devotions, altar serving, and First Communion. Jesus is really here! As we grow in our knowledge of Him, as we grow in our friendship with Him, this moment only becomes that much more exciting.