Introductory Rites: Our Response to God’s Invitation
Have you ever noticed that Fr. Mike, Fr. Radley, deacons, lectors, and altar servers begin Mass in the least efficient way possible? In ten steps (maybe five for Fr. Mike), they could go from the sacristy straight to the sanctuary. But instead, they go all the way to the back and walk slowly down the main aisle. Why? Something more is going on that we can’t see. Since we are creatures of soul and body, what we do physically in Mass is meant to express something else spiritually. The procession expresses the theology of journey: we are all pilgrims on a journey that we didn’t map out on our own. This is what the Introductory Rites of Mass are all about.
In Genesis, God calls Abram to leave his home and go “to a land that I will show you.” In the Gospels, Jesus invites the apostles to follow him with no itinerary besides: “Come and see.” God is a God who calls us. Actually, more precisely: God is a God who calls us out. In Greek, the word “church” is “ekklesia” – literally, “called out of.” But God’s call is not condemning like a sibling tattling on their brother or sister. God calls us out of one way of living into a better way.
On this “Good Shepherd Sunday,” Jesus offers a beautiful image of Himself: “the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” The Lord calls us out – not condemningly, but like a Good Shepherd. He calls us out of harm’s way and into greener pastures. As our movement from Lent to Easter shows us quite dramatically: God also calls us out of darkness to walk in marvelous light (see 1 Peter 2:9). This is why Mass begins the way it does. In the Introductory Rites, each aspect reminds us that God is a God who calls us out.
What does God do in the Mass? God invites. God invites us to come out of death into life. God invites us to come out of the busyness of our lives into the rhythm of divine life. God invites us to the table of Word and Eucharist. And, if an invitation is true and honest, the host wants their guest to be there. God. Wants. You.
What do we do in Mass? Well, what do you do when you’re invited to something? You respond! We respond by gathering. The Good Shepherd calls, we follow His voice. Notice that gathering is different than just “showing up.” When we simply show up, we can miss God’s invitation. When we approach Mass as our response to God’s invitation, we open ourselves to transformation. “Showing up” is what we do when we’re going through the motions of life. Gathering is what we do when we want to live intentionally.
The procession symbolizes our gathering. No longer are we isolated people, loosely united by geographical and religious similarities. God calls us to come together and become the Body of Christ. The Sign of the Cross grounds us in God who is a communion of relations: Father, Son, and Spirit. In the Penitential Act, we honestly acknowledge who we are (“I have greatly sinned”) and – even greater – who God is (“Lord, have mercy”). We sing the Gloria to turn our focus away from ourselves and toward God, the reason we have gathered. And in the Collect prayer (“Let us pray…”), we collect our prayers into one, symbolizing the unity of our gathering.
Starting today, choose to engage in Mass intentionally. Let your Sunday worship be an intentional act of gathering, in response to the God who calls YOU. Don’t go through the motions, but truly worship and live your life as a response to God’s invitation. And you’ll encounter the God who calls us out of darkness into marvelous light. Next week, we explore the Liturgy of the Word.
