Finding the good stuff in church
Hebrews 9:11-14
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that
have come to be, passing through the
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he
entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own Blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the
blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that
their flesh is cleansed, how much more
will the Blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences
from dead works to worship the living God.
Where do you find the proverbial
“good stuff,” where you live life at its fullest and finest? Some suppose it’s found on a quiet beach,
watching the waves, others at a Disney vacation, wearing Mickey ears, still
others say it’s when you bag a 10-point buck.
Kenny Chesney sings about a man who walks into bar and says, “I’ll have
the good stuff.” But surprisingly, the
bartender doesn’t reach for the whiskey or gin, and replies, “You can’t find
that here.” He explains, “Cause it’s the
long first kiss on a second date, Momma’s all worried when you get home late,
And droppin’ the ring in the spaghetti plate, Cause your hands are shakin so
much. And it’s the way that she looks
with the rice in her hair. Eatin burnt suppers the whole first year, And askin
for seconds to keep her from tearin up.
Yeah, man that’s the good stuff.”
In other words, you don’t find the good stuff at the bottom of a bottle,
but at the bottom of your heart, when you fall in love. Love is the good stuff.
The first reading from Hebrews also
answers the question about where you find the good stuff. Hebrews says, “Christ came as the high priest
of the good things that have come to be.”
Jesus is the high priest of the “good things,” that is, of the really
good stuff. And I’m sure there’s some
Protestant church out there called, “The Church of the Good Stuff.” Protestants have all the catchy names! But Hebrews goes on to explain that this
spiritual good stuff is really Jesus’ Blood, that “cleanses our consciences
from dead works to worship the living God.”
The good stuff – really the best stuff – is Jesus’ Blood, always waiting
for us in the Eucharist, where we worship the living God, under the form of
bread and wine. You see, Catholics find
the good stuff not in a local bar, but in their local parish, where they walk
into Mass every Sunday and say, “Give me the good stuff.”
My
favorite line in the Mass comes at the end of the 3rd Eucharistic Prayer. Yes, there are 4 different Eucharistic
Prayers, some shorter, some longer. It’s
not always the priest’s fault when Mass goes long! The last line of the 3rd Eucharistic Prayer
reads, “May we praise and glorify you for ever through him from whom all good
things come.” At that moment in the Mass
the good things, the good stuff, sits at my finger tips. I have a dear friend who started going to
Adoration for an hour a week when her life was most hectic. Her husband complained, “How can you go to
Adoration now when you don’t have any time?!”
She replied, “Now is when I need to go to Adoration more than
ever!” She knew where to find the good
stuff. In the early Church, Christians
were accused of being drunkards because people smelled wine on their breath
early in the morning. Those accusations
were exactly true: they had gone to Mass and received the Body and Blood of
Christ, and were drunk on the Holy Spirit.
They knew where to find the good stuff.
Chesney
ends his song like this: “When you get home she’ll start to cry. When she say, ‘I’m sorry,’ say ‘So am I.’ And
look into those eyes so deep in love. And drink it up. Cause that’s the good stuff.” You know, we drink some pretty good stuff at
home, but we drink the best stuff here at Mass.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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