You know how it is, there I was doing a bible study on the Catholic Mass through the book of Revelation and a cross reference leaped out at me and set me thinking of something else. That reference was John 10; 9 “I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
So what does this “go in and out” mean? If we were thinking of Jesus as the door to heaven we would just be “in” as our eternal destiny. So where might we be going to a place of blessing through Jesus Christ and coming away again? The Church and in particular the Catholic Mass which is meant to be in union/communion with the Church in heaven as glimpsed through the lens of John’s revelation. Those things we see in the Church and the mass such as candles/torches/lampstands, incense, vestments, worship, forms of words, are all there in John’s revelation (as well as all the end-times stuff which is so fascinating). So what we are participating in is an image or reflection of the Church in heaven. If we then by a leap of imagination put ourselves on heaven’s side of this lens we are then looking from the Church in heaven to the Church on earth. Wow!!! That should enable us to go to Church with a certain sense of excitement, anticipation and awareness that we are going to a place of worship, that right relation between creature and Creator, and blessing. A taste of heaven on earth.
Consider Revelation 1: 10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day…”
What better place could we be. We come to the Father,through the Son,and in the Spirit – we offer our worship and we receive blessing, and this for a purpose – for our going out back into the world. The Lord’s day then becomes the beginning of the week when we are equipped and empowered for the task ahead rather than the end of the week and our being refilled because we are run down. As a reminder make sure you have a calendar that starts the week on Sunday rather than one that ends the week on Sunday.
Perhaps we can then see Sunday Mass as a mountain top experience (Matthew 17; 1-8) where we behold his glory, worship and receive blessing, and then go down the mountain for there is much to do.
“Blessed will you be coming in, and blessed going out”
The site for the bible study looking at the Catholic Mass alongside the book of Revelation is:- http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/liturgy%20of%20the%20mass%20in%20the%20book%20of%20revelation.htm
histrainfillsthetemple 