The Word leads believers to the altar. From “table” to “table.” as Pope John Paul II describes it:
42. The table of the word leads naturally to the table of the Eucharistic Bread and prepares the community to live its many aspects, which in the Sunday Eucharist assume an especially solemn character. As the whole community gathers to celebrate “the Lord’s Day”, the Eucharist appears more clearly than on other days as the great “thanksgiving” in which the Spirit-filled Church turns to the Father, becoming one with Christ and speaking in the name of all humanity. The rhythm of the week prompts us to gather up in grateful memory the events of the days which have just passed, to review them in the light of God and to thank him for his countless gifts, glorifying him “through Christ, with Christ and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit”.
It’s a description of an Ignatian approach, reviewing the week with gratitude. My sense is that the pace and pressures of modern life see the celebration of liturgy, at best, as an escape from the week, not an expression of gratefulness for it.
We are reminded of the connection of Sunday to Creation, and the numerous New Testament references that suggest the renewal and restoration of the relationship between God and people through the Son:
The Christian community thus comes to a renewed awareness of the fact that all things were created through Christ (cf. Col 1:16; Jn 1:3), and that in Christ, who came in the form of a slave to take on and redeem our human condition, all things have been restored (cf. Eph 1:10), in order to be handed over to God the Father, from whom all things come to be and draw their life. Then, giving assent to the Eucharistic doxology with their “Amen”, the People of God look in faith and hope towards the eschatological end, when Christ “will deliver the kingdom to God the Father … so that God may be everything to everyone” (1 Cor 15:24, 28).
Catholic Sensibility 