Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

The Responsorial Psalm invites us to celebrate what God is to us: “Sing with joy to God our help” (Psalm 81).  

Leviticus 23: 1-37 lists “the festivals of the Lord which you shall celebrate at their proper time….” Why does God command us to celebrate special days together? 

To “celebrate” is to “single out for grateful remembrance.” God knows that if we do not celebrate the great events that revealed his love to us, we will gradually forget all about them. And if we forget the events our relationship is founded on, soon we will not understand the relationship itself, much less appreciate it. 

The same is true for the interactions that characterize our relationship. If we do not explicitly celebrate different aspects of our relationship with God by observances and ceremonies that declare what we are to God and he to us, pretty soon we forget what our relationship with him entails: what God is for us and we for him; what we are committed to doing for God and he for us. 

The key to celebration is expression. We express meaning in words and symbols. We express appreciation by showing enthusiasm. We express joy by singing, clapping, and dancing. To give these expressions is to minister to ourselves and others by letting the invisible reality of our faith, hope, and love, our inner experience of God’s reality to us and of his action on our lives, become visible. By making the invisible visible, we make it more real to ourselves and others. We build up each other’s awareness of the truth of God, of his existence, his action, his grace. When we “sing with joy to God our help,” we are fulfilling a basic and important Christian duty, one to which our baptismal consecration as priests commits and consecrates us. 

In Matthew 13: 54-58 the people of  Jesus’ home town failed to appreciate him. He grew up with them, and all they saw in him was “the carpenter’s son.” They took him for granted. As a result, “he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” 

This happens to us when we “grow up with” our faith and simply take it for granted. If we don’t celebrate it, “singling out for grateful remembrance” what is so special about our religion and our relationship with God, we simply don’t experience the gift that Christianity is. If we just “attend” Mass, we deaden the experience of Mass for ourselves and others. But if we sing, make the responses with enthusiasm, and participate “fully, actively, and consciously” in an attentive and personal way, this is a ministry that gives life to ourselves and others. To appreciate God, “Sing to God with joy.” 

Initiative: Be a priest: Express with enthusiasm your faith, hope, and love. 

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #XXX, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.