Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

There is something in the Gospel that is important for us to get and not overlook. It has to do with how Jesus is present to us. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” When we speak of the Eucharist (the Mass), we refer to the four presences (the ways Jesus is present).

1. We first think of the real presence in the Eucharist—as our gifts of bread and wine become the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ, which we are, then, invited to receive—a high point of the entire Eucharistic celebration.
2. Jesus is present to us in the Word proclaimed (the Scriptures that we venerate and hold sacred as God speaking to us).
3. Jesus is present in the person of the priest who presides at the Eucharist (the celebrant).
4. Jesus is present in the assembly of all present—all the baptized who have gathered for this Eucharist.

It is the last of these four means of presence that we might overlook. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” This gets to the question of who we are. Who we are in relation to our Loving God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ redeemed the world, opening to all of God’s children the Gates of Heaven. And since we believe that we are all united to him and to his death by way of our baptism, then we all share a oneness in him – we are all children of God. Jesus and God dwell in each of us. Yes, that’s right. Within us. So, coming to Sunday Mass, to celebrate the Eucharist with our parish family is far more than just a gathering of people at the 10 o’clock Mass. It is an assembly of the holy People of God. The Lord Jesus is present in each of and all of us together.

This reality is the basis of the law to love our neighbor. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Each of us bears Christ within us—thus calling for great reverence between brothers and sisters—followers of Jesus. And as such his words are very clear to us: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love one another as he has loved us.

Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB