Mass: Liturgy of the Word

In the Liturgy of the Word, God speaks to us in a living presence today. On Sunday there are three readings. The first is from the Old Testament. The second is from the writings of the apostles: Acts, Epistles, Revelation. The third is always a Gospel.

On weekdays there are normally two readings, the second of which is always a Gospel. Listen to these readings as real calls to richer faith spoken to our mind and heart directly by the living presence of God. “Jesus is present in his word, since it is he himself who speaks when the Holy Scriptures are read in the church (Liturgy, 7). ”

First Reading

The first reading is from the Old Testament, except during the Easter season. The first reading is chosen because it somehow relates to the Gospel reading of the day.

Beginning with Easter, the first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles. This continues until the end of the Easter season on Pentecost Sunday. During this celebration of the Lord’s resurrection, the proclamation of Acts allows us to focus on what life for Jesus’ disciples was like in the early Church and how they were transformed by the Risen Christ. When they received the Holy Spirit, they began to do the very works that previously had been done only by our Lord.

Whether the first reading is from the Old Testament or from the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, it demands a response from us. The word of God proclaimed is not left to hang in the air. It is either accepted or ignored by us who hear it.

Our response is a response to God’s love for us. In our preparation we found, like St. Paul, that we are as good as dead without God’s help. As we listen to the proclamation of God’s word, we joyfully hear that a savior has come and this indeed is a reason to give thanks to God!

Responsorial Psalm

We have heard the divinely revealed words of love and answer with texts from the Church’s prayer book, the Psalms. As we become accustomed to the repeated Psalm verse, notice that the words usually help us to connect the teachings of the readings. The repetition of the verse gives us a meditative mood and stimulates our own personal way of answering God’s call to love.

Second Reading

The second reading, unlike the first, is always from the New Testament. Once again, after the second reading we have the rhythm of call-response. This is our dialogue of salvation that prevails in the Mass and is meant to be a spiritual habit we take into our daily lives. God is always speaking to our hearts and extending a guiding hand to lead on our pilgrimage of faith.

Alleluia or Gospel Acclamation

Before the Gospel we acclaim God with an “alleluia,” a word that means, “praise God.” This sets a tone of joy as we are about to hear the good news of our salvation from sin and the gift of divine life brought to us from Jesus. The scriptural verse that accompanies the alleluia usually gives us the theme of the Gospel reading. When we realize that God has given us so much love, we find the alleluia arises spontaneously from our deepest soul.

Gospel

The Liturgy calls us to show special signs of reverence for the reading of the Gospel. As the General Instruction for the Roman Missal says, we stand to “acknowledge and confess Christ present and speaking” to us. We make the sign of the cross on our foreheads, lips and hearts. Thus we open our minds to hear Christ’s words, plan to share his words with others, by confessing them with our lips, and declare we believe Jesus with all our hearts.

In listening to the Gospel we come to “see” Jesus and learn what God is like and what God wishes of us.

At the conclusion of the Gospel proclamation, the minister kisses the Book of the Gospels, and then holds it aloft as he announces to us that what we have heard is the “Gospel of the Lord.” We answer by giving praise to our Lord Jesus Christ–“Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ”–for all He has done for us, not only in revealing God to us, but in opening the way of salvation to us.

Homily

The purpose of the homily is to open up for us the message of God’s word for our lives today.

Listening to a homily is very much like listening to the Scriptures. It requires our whole attention. If we really believe that God is going to speak to us, we will hang on every word the priest speaks, expecting to receive a unique message that God intends for us.
Our attitude has a lot to do with whether we are “being fed” at Mass. If we first ask God to speak a “word” to us, God will! But we should be mindful that the homily is not the end; it will ideally make us hungry for more, and the “more” is God.