Well I saw the Pope (again)

The next day was the Pallium Mass and the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Of course being in Rome this is a big holiday. Businesses are closed, no school, etc. The North American College is always very good about providing tickets for the big events at the Basilica of Saint Peter. So a whole crew from NAC headed on over to the "bid ol' Church" for the Mass. For my first Papal Mass, it was very beautiful. What is most striking is that there were literally people from every corner of the world there. The Mass was celebrated using five different languages, French, English, Spanish, German, and Latin. It was really my first experience of the Catholic Church as catholic. As the book of Revelations say, "You [Christ] were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God men of every people and race, nation and tongue, and every tribe." The Catholic Church is the most inclusive institution in the world, never is it asked before baptism about nationality, income, race, intelligence, or any other factor, expect to be human, a beloved child of God. What is should do to the individual Catholic is to expand his heart, so that he can love men of ever nation and tribe. Wow! Does that ever sound difficult, but we do not do this alone. This love, pure and filled with truth and light, comes to us from God. It comes through any means God chooses (notice, not any means we choose, God is in charge here), primarily through the liturgy. It is the living again of the mystery of the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At Mass God comes to earth, and through the power of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament we are brought, crossing the boundries of space and time, to experience being at the foot of the Cross. It is through this that God gives us the gift of the pure Christian love that can expand our heart of make room for all people. Fr. Ronald Rolheiser says this is good prepartion of heaven where you will be with "men of every race, and tonuge..." Just think this was only once Mass, imagine what the next five years will be like.