I asked some high school students once what they got out of Mass. They said, ‘nothing.’ “Why do you think that is?” I asked them. “We don’t know,” they responded.”

Then I said, “Exactly right, because you are not at Mass to get anything out of it. You come to Mass to give everything you have to it.

Our participation in Mass was never intended to be a passive one. It has always been intended that we give our whole self to God in imitation of Christ Who gives His Life as a sacrifice for the many.

This message is meant for you,“you are the salt of the earth!” But what if we allow salt to go flat? What good is it?

In the old baptismal rite the priest placed a pinch of salt on the tongue of the infant, which usually made them jerk and wake up. We are the salt. Jesus us to wake people up with our sacrifices and our lifestyles so others will see what it means to be a Catholic, so others will taste the world of God and wake up!

The dynamic of the Mass is real. It has its quiet moments, its loud moments. It has times when the priest speaks. It has times when you sing. The Mass has movement. This dynamic surrounds the reality of the mystery we celebrate.

Did you know for instance that at the moment we signed ourselves with the sign of the cross, we left chronological time, as we know it and entered kairological or God’s time, which is infinite! We have no clocks here, because we don’t need them.

Each one of us is called to live as salt in the world, each one of us is called to reach out of ourselves and give our best at this Mass.

Jesus intends our active participation. Only then will we learn what is expected of us out there in the marketplace. When you offer all you have in this Mass you will learn how to stimulate hearts to love Jesus, you will excite souls to reconcile with God, you will guide lost souls by your light.

There is a quote on the wall of the sacristy, which reads: “Priest of God, offer this Mass as of it were your first Mass, as if it were your last Mass, as if it were your only Mass.”

Now is the time, my friends, to change your heart, and give everything you have to God. If you don’t you will never be able to fulfill your mission in this world to ‘go out and make disciples and to attract the lost with the light of who we are, to come home.

Bring the lost home. Nothing else matters, nothing.