by Bob Deddens
At the end of Mass, we often hear these words spoken by our priests after they say “the Mass has ended, go in peace.” I was struck by a short article in the Magnificat written by Fr. Richard Veras of the Archdiocese of New York. I noticed the article because I met Fr. Veras at a retreat about 10 years ago.
Fr. Veras quoted Saint Augustine’s Confessions where he told of his encounter with Bishop Ambrose of Milan. Augustine wrote that Ambrose (aka St. Ambrose) “received me like a father, and as a bishop, and told me how glad he was that I had come” to visit him.
Ambrose was a renowned preacher. However, Veras wrote: “More than his preaching, St. Augustine was moved by St. Ambrose himself, the way he received people, the way he read and prayed, the way he welcomed his mother Monica, i.e. the way he lived!”
According to Fr. Veras, “St. Augustine was slowly persuaded by St. Ambrose’s preaching, but his heart was opened because of the way St. Ambrose glorified the Lord simply by living his life; every aspect changed by his certainty of Christ.”
Each Mass is intended to serve as a weekly or daily “wake-up call” to live the Christian life. Each Mass, the source and summit of our Catholic prayer life, is intended to give us the grace to go out and glorify the Lord by our lives. As with St. Augustine, the liturgical prayer we experience during Mass can encourage us to encounter others who do not know Christ or do not know or understand that the Mass is the greatest event taking place on earth (Why? Because Jesus is really present with us!)
So, my Brother Knights, let's renew our efforts to glorify the Lord by every aspect of our lives, and especially how we greet strangers and show them love and respect wherever we go.