It is impossible to act alone in the exercise of reverence. That is because reverence uses ceremony as a kind of language of behavior, and you cannot use a language all by yourself.
Paul Woodruff, Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue
Customers can dine alone, one person to a table, each diner lost in thought or absorbed in a book, never meeting the eyes of those seated nearby. But guests at a dinner party, or members of a household gathered for a meal, sit, together, at table. There, we recount our days, tell stories, catch up on common friends and relations, debate current events. We laugh and listen and sometimes argue, but we never eat alone, or alone, eat. The meal is a ritual of gathering in which food and drink are just two of the many elements we share.
Imagine a Thanksgiving dinner to which no friends or family members can come; they are scattered, all over the country. So, the hostess decides they will still keep the day. She cooks the turkey and dressing, mashes the potatoes and bakes the pies. Then she divides each dish into single-size servings, freezes them, packs them in dry ice and sends the food on its way, overnight express, one meal to Los Angeles and another to Boston. The recipients unpack their meals and eat the reheated food. Perhaps they speak to one another over the phone or send e-mails about the cranberry relish. They have eaten, but have they feasted?
All we do, from our rising, to our prayers for the world and the church throughout the world, prepares us to gather at the table of the Lord. This table is set with a feast we could never provide, the Body and Blood of Christ, given up for us, poured out for us. The table is set with a feast we could never provide, but it is a feast in which we are invited to participate fully. We know that God invites our cooperation when we see what is laid out for us: Wine and bread, “which earth has given and human hands have made.” Grapes and wheat, those elements God alone can create, become wine and bread through human labor and human intelligence. Anyone who has ever raised a crop or watched a harvest destroyed by hail knows that human labor and human intelligence often meet with failure. Anyone who has ever baked a loaf of bread or cooked a meal knows how often the work ends in burnt and fallen ruins. We bring all of human life to the table of the Lord, and God welcomes it — and us — there. The table is set and we are invited to come forward and partake of its bounty.
We acknowledge the truth of God’s providence and of our poverty as the Eucharistic prayer opens. Who is God? God is,
…holy indeed,
and all creation rightly gives you praise.
All life, all holiness comes from you
Though your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
By the working of the Holy Spirit. (EPIII)
Who are we? We are the people God gathers “from age to age,”
So that from east to west
A perfect offering made be made
to the glory of your name. (EPIII)
We are the men and women who join with angels and saints, “united with them, and in the name of every creature under heaven…praise your glory as we say:”
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
So that from these first words, we establish the rule of reverence as Woodruff explains it, namely, that the One we reverence cannot be changed or controlled by human means, is not fully understood by human experts, was not created by human beings, and is transcendent.
We establish the rule of reverence in what we say and in how we speak. The Eucharistic Prayer belongs to the church. Some parts are given to the presider and others to the assembly and still others to presider and assembly together. It is a kind of song, with distinct and separate pieces, all coming together to form a melodious and harmonious whole. Reverence “creates a space” for each participant to do his or her part with courtesy and care.
We establish the rule of reverence and reverence as the language of our behavior. Memory aids us here. Recalling who God is and who we are before God orients us, sets us aright before God and before God’s table. Recalling whom God is, the One who “for our sake opened his arms on the cross [and] put an end to death,” us compels us to praise.
Memory helps us walk to the table with reverence. There is a difference between watching one’s host pop a frozen dinner into a microwave and watching one’s host knead dough for bread and chop vegetables for the sauce. We treat a loaf of homemade bread differently from a bag of supermarket hotdog buns. Time and care and sacrifice matter. So we recall Jesus and his words at table with his friends. "Before he was given up to death, a death he freely accepted,"
he took bread and gave you thanks.
He broke the bread,
gave it to his disciples, and said:
Take this, all of you, and eat it:
this is my body which will be given up for you.
When supper was ended, he took the cup.
Again he gave you thanks and praise,
gave the cup to his disciples, and said:
Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
this is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
It will be shed for you and for all
so that sins may be forgiven.
Do this in memory of me.
We reflect on the table God sets for us. God offers himself as the bread come from heaven, as the wine of the kingdom of heaven. This reflection shapes how we approach the altar. We come clothed in the mystery of our faith. By “mystery,” the church does not mean a trick to be worked out or a puzzle to be solved. By “mystery,” the church means an inexhaustible reality, a truth so high and so deep we will never reach its end. We are invited into the mystery, but we can never, nor should we ever, hope to control or command it. This mystery is God’s love for us, a love which has “destroyed our death…and restored our life.”
We sing together, the church throughout the world and throughout time,
When we eat this bread and drink this cup,
we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus,
until you come in glory.
We are gathered in. We are ready to receive.
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