Since the Second Vatican Council we have a new outlook on the mass: the Eucharistic liturgy is best celebrated when we come to mass ready to be transformed.  In order to do so we must first open ourselves to others and doing this is always a bit of a risk; it makes us feel vulnerable.

Opening ourselves to others we are aware that Christ is present in four ways in the liturgy: in the assembly gathered, in the word proclaimed, in the priest presiding, and in the eucharist (bread and wine). We recognize the presence of Christ who is the head of the body.  We acknowledge one another as members of one body.

We have been taught that the presence of Christ in the tabernacle is derivative of and secondary to his living presence in the celebration of the eucharist itself.  This is because it is the action of the liturgy, the calling down of the Holy Spirit, which transforms the bread and wine and us into the Body of Christ.  The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle so it may be taken to those members of the Body of Christ who are unable to come to mass because of sickness or infirmity.  

As follows, the liturgy is an external expression of praise.  We attend not because we have to, but because we want to be transformed and made new.  Coming together we are individually changed but it is in the prayers and singing of the mass that we outwardly and communally show this transformation.  Remembering this each week we are better prepared for the transformation the mass brings about.   (August 1, 2004)