Greetings in Christ, all! Hopefully, you noticed the words on the steps leading into our sanctuary: Sanctus. This is the Latin word “Holy” and, repeated three times, it has a special meaning to us. In Scripture, when St. John was given a vision of Heaven, he saw that there were angels all around God who constantly proclaim “Holy! Holy! Holy!” as they gaze on Our Lord. “Holy” means “set apart, worthy, exalted.”
Now, in the Hebrew language, if you wanted to describe something as holy, you simply said “holy.” If you wanted to describe it as holier, then you would say the word holy twice. If you wanted to say something was perfectly holy, you said it three times: Holy, Holy, Holy. This is why the angels in Heaven say it three times: God is the definition of Holiness.
So, why on our altar steps? As we approach the Altar of God, we recognize it is a particularly sacred place because the Blessed Sacrament is there and because in the sanctuary we enter into heaven to join Jesus at the Last Supper, where He gave us the Eucharist. That’s an amazing truth we hold to: each time we begin the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass; we believe we are going to the actual Last Supper with Jesus. We are not remembering it, we are not reenacting it.
To enter into something that happened 2,000 years ago, we need to be outside of linear time and only heaven is outside of linear time. So, right before the Eucharistic prayer, we sing together the song of the Angels in Heaven: “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of Hosts! Heaven and earth are full of your glory! Hosanna in the highest!” We then kneel, because we are in Heaven with God. We are at the Last Supper.
It is my fervent hope that, as we see those words “Holy, Holy, Holy,” we will remember where we are when we are in Church, we will remember that we enter Heaven with Jesus each time we participate in the Last Supper and we will remember the abject beauty of God and His love for us that our simple, broken prayer is brought right to His throne each time we gather for Mass.
Our finishing work on our church will continue over the next year or so: the reliquary area, the new statues, the baptismal font, communion rail and, someday soon, the organ pipes. Pray that all this comes together through all the havoc the quarantine brought with it. All in God’s time, right?
I want to end by taking a moment and asking your forgiveness. This last Monday was August 15th, The Feast of the Assumption of Mary the Mother of God. I do not know why the Church decided it was not a Holy Day of Obligation this year, but I do know I should’ve written about it last week. You may remember that last time they declared this feast a non obligation, we still offered more Masses than usual because why would we not pray every Mass we could in honor of Our Blessed Mother? This year the schedule got away from me and I dropped the ball: I failed to give you a heads up and failed to schedule more Masses. I ask for you to forgive me. I will do better next time. I have a deep love for Our Blessed Mother and I’m sad that I blew it.
So…that’s it for this week. I pray Jesus bless you all richly.
I thank Jesus everyday that I get to be your priest
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