“Ummm…Because I get hungry during Mass and need a snack.” I said with as much confidence as a 5 year old could muster. See, I was at Mass, and I didn’t want to be at Mass. I wanted to be at home playing video games, Legos, or anything else except Mass. The only thing about Mass that was even remotely interesting to me at age 5 was communion. I would ask my mom each week if I could receive, and finally today, she asked me why I wanted to receive. I thought about it hard, I knew if I could get this answer right, then I would get to go up, and so I made the snack comment. I didn’t get to go up to communion. Mass was once again, a boring waste of time for me.

I think a lot of people feel sort of like my 5 year old self. They go to Mass, but it’s a chore, or they don’t go to Mass because they don’t want to be bored. I felt that way for quite awhile! I found the music to be dull, the homily worse, and I didn’t like to dress up. It almost seemed like a form of punishment because I didn’t see anything in it for me. One day however that all changed…

In High School I went on a conference to the University of Steubenville, and Mass was changed for me forever! At Steubenville, they had a live band playing contemporary music, and I loved it! The homilies were exciting and full of life, and I didn’t have to dress up! However what made that Mass different from every other Mass, was that at that Mass, I met Jesus.

Every other Mass I sat and waited for something to happen, but this Mass I gave my participation to it, and I met Jesus. I was aware of his presence in me, and in the Eucharist. It was unlike any mass I had ever attended before.

Now some people would take this story to mean that we need to make the Mass more contemporary, then people will enjoy it. But that idea is completely backwards. I didn’t meet Jesus at that Steubenville Mass because it was livelier; I met Jesus because I participated in that Mass. The only major difference between that Mass, and Mass at my home Parish, was my participation.

I think many people today go to Mass waiting for something to happen. Most of us are so used to going to places and being entertained that when we come to Mass, we also expect to be entertained. This is the equivalent of going over to a friend’s house, sitting on the couch and expecting your friend to entertain you the whole time you are visiting. We all know that visiting a friend doesn’t work that way. So why do we expect it to work that way with Jesus?

See today, I enjoy Mass regardless of where it may be because I participate. The type of music does not matter, the quality of the homily does not matter, and the excitement of the congregation does not matter. What matters is my level of participation in that Mass. If I participate I meet Jesus, if I don’t participate, he passes on by until the next time.

The same is true for all of us. If we participate in Mass, and try to find value in it, we will meet the Lord. However, if we don’t participate we will miss him, and we will find the most exciting, valuable, and important event on earth, to be just a dull hour we need to get through each week.