Superman

That made him similar to another comic book character, Superman, who also had all sorts of incredible powers beyond human imagining. Superman was, in fact, invincible and all powerful. Shazam!

As kids, whenever we wanted to “fly away,” or dreamed of going to the moon in a single leap, or wanted to beat up all the neighborhood bullies in the world with a single knock-out blow to the chin, we could think, Shazam! and… who knows.

However, I do remember I always made sure that if I leaped from a tall building, it was off the sash of the garage door, which was about two feet off the ground. (But, who else but me would know that I was really leaping off the Empire State Building in New York City, the tallest building in the world at the time?) Shazam!

I don’t have the space here to tell you about all the other fantasy folk I spent time with at that age, guys like Flash Gordon, the Green Hornet, Jack Armstrong, and, of course, Superman.

A Real World

From my adult perspective today I might be tempted to say that all of that was a bit of a waste of good time and imagination. But, on the contrary, I think it prepared me to enter a world beyond my imagination, a real world, a world even beyond time. It is that world which Catholics call “liturgical,” a Eucharistic-Sacramental world.

The December-January liturgical time from the birth of the incarnate Son of God on December 25th all the way to his baptism on January 9th is part of that world. That is the liturgical time when we are also present to the martyrdom of St. Stephen on the 26th of December, St. John the Apostle on the 27th, and the Holy Innocents on the 28th.

A Timeless Machine

Then we join with all the angels and saints to honor Jesus’ Mother on January 1st after which we head off in our liturgical timeless machine to the Epiphany on January 2nd and the Baptism of the Lord on January 9th.

Now I ask you, has anybody ever been able to match that in the comic book or science fiction world? And even if they could, what makes the liturgical world even more astounding than any of these is, it’s real!

The Holy Sprit has created a new world through the power of Word and sacrament. And the liturgical Shazam allowing entrance into this mysterious world is a simple, “Amen.” (Yes, Lord! I believe!) Ta Da!

In my column in the November Restoration I spoke a bit about how Catholics “put flesh” on the most ordinary things of the Bible making that holy book much more real than many bible-people often give us credit for.

My heart was moved in that direction because I focused on the feasts of that liturgical time of the year. And so this time, as I focused on the wonderful Advent-Christmas-Epiphany feasts, I journeyed from the fantasy of my childhood to the fantastic reality of our liturgical life.

And even though there is perhaps a muted sigh of relief, especially after the Christmas part of the season, we often forget that in some very mysterious way we not only celebrate those events in the lives of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and in the lives of all the wonderful biblical people of that season, but we enter their lives through the liturgical celebrations.

So, in a most profound and holy fashion we didn’t just kneel at the creche in our churches during Christmas in memory of Christ, his mother Mary, his foster father Joseph and all the angels and the shepherds and the Three Kings.

No. Because of how the Holy Spirit has created this Eucharistic and Sacramental time, those events are now “time-less.” I not only can imagine the scene in Bethlehem, the coming of the Magi, the baptism of the Lord and so forth, but when my heart answers Amen to all of that, (Yes Lord, I believe.) then Time opens up to Eternity in a way beyond imagination and fantasy.

A New Time Zone

Shazam! I am in a new time zone—liturgical time. I am there!

One of the reasons it is so difficult to maintain this timeless liturgical sense in our world today is that the audio-video people have developed the world of fantasy to such a point that our world of faith pales by comparison.

We can, of course, try to vie with them “professionally” and do some sophisticated audio-video “faith stuff” ourselves, and we have, but that can become a bit of video game theology—a joystick spirituality. (A joystick is the instrument you need to play all the sophisticated games on your computer.)

The only way we will ever convince anyone of this awesome Eucharistic-Sacramental notion of time is when people see it in us! When we re-capture our own sense of all the feasts of each season, even the ones that are not celebrated on Sundays.

When we recapture our sense of the holy, our sense of reverence, our sense of awe in our churches and in our spirituality. When a simple “Amen” touches our lives with the power of a comic-book secret word.

When we automatically put ourselves (literally) into every scene of the Scriptures, of the lives of the saints, of the mysteries of Jesus, especially when we live them out together lit-urgically in our Church life.

When who I am in Christ is as real to me as who you are in Christ. Then the world of fantasy will pale before the world of Faith.

And as we become touched by the reality of the mysteries of Faith in the world of liturgical time, we will never be satisfied with mere fantasy again.

Special Effects

But it won’t be like three three-hour episodes of The Lord of The Rings with plenty of popcorn and special audio-visual effects.

Maybe, if we are lucky, every now and then we may suddenly find ourselves so deep in the heart of Eucharistic-Sacramental time that it’s like we have flown away somewhere—gone to the moon in a single leap.

That doesn’t last long at first. But then did we not have to develop our sense of comic book fantasy before it was real for us? (I used to wear a sheet over my shoulders so I could more easily fantasize Superman’s cloak and thus be empowered to fly to the moon in a single leap.)

There is some similarity when we attempt to enter the world of liturgical time, too: we have to take our seasonal feasts very seriously, not as “commemorations” but as events which we can actually enter by the power of the Holy Spirit. It requires a very simple discipline to enter into that liturgical time zone.

Our experience may seem very short at first compared to the professional world of fantasy, but if we go there feast by feast, year by year, one day it will no longer seem like fantasy, and we will be completely at home in the world of Faith.

Have you been there lately? No? Take a few moments and go to a holy place, a tabernacle, a favorite statue, an altar. Humbly place your hand on it (when possible).

Compose yourself, free yourself from this world’s fantasies, and very simply repeat, “Amen” over and over: Amen! (Yes Lord. I believe!) Amen. Over and over and over.

Don’t expect a vision. Don’t expect God to speak to you as he did to Moses on the mountain.

But just bathe your mind and your heart and your emotions and your memories with, “Amen. Amen. Amen.”

When the meaning of “Amen” (Yes, Lord. I believe!) is as deep and natural for you as breathing, when that is how present you are at every liturgical event in our life of faith, whether in the church or elsewhere, you might be surprised at the fantastic things you will begin to see and hear in our liturgical time and the incredible things you are able to do as a result of them.

P.S. I’ll take Amen over Shazam any time!