Eucharistic Gestures for the Healing of our World

Dear Friend,

This Sunday’s readings bring to mind one of my favorite moments in our Sunday liturgy. With the gifts of bread and wine having been brought up in procession and the altar, as a table, having been set, the priest begins:  

“The Lord be with you.”

And the people reply: “And with your spirit.” 

And then, it comes, a gesture, printed in the Roman Missal in red letters, as are all instructions which are not to be read aloud: The Priest, raising his hands, continues… 

That’s it: raising his hands. The words follow, of course, “Lift up your hearts,” but it’s the gesture itself - non-verbal - that carries so much meaning. It points us to a long tradition, begun by Moses, as he stood on the hill described in the first reading (Exodus 17): “As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,” we hear, “Israel had the better of the fight.” We don’t hear the words of Moses, we only have his gesture: hands raised up.  

In his recent document on liturgy, Pope Francis poses what he calls the “fundamental question” regarding liturgy: how do we recover the capacity to live completely the liturgical action? In other words, how do we, as Roman Catholics today, allow the words and gestures of the Sunday Eucharist to shape and motivate our lives, day to day? 

Moses on the hill was looking at a battlefield, while the widow in the Gospel was pleading with a corrupt judge for justice. Likewise, every Sunday, we lift up our hearts to the Lord, in the midst of many struggles. Every Sunday, we see and rehearse postures we’re meant to learn and live as God’s priestly people, eucharistic gestures for the healing of our world.  

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor