Ten Lessons the Mass Is Trying To Teach Us
Here are 3 more lessons God is teaching us.
8.            God is faithful
                I have never been a great athlete.  I was always a little overweight and I suffered from a mild coordination problem.  Sadly this made me very unpopular growing up and most of the time in elementary school and a good part of high school I was the social outcast.  I remember one weekend though one of the boys in my class invited me over to his house to play.  I was extremely excited and I enjoyed my time over at his house.  Sadly on Monday morning I was devastated when I realize that nothing had changed, I was still a social outcast and he was still a part of the in-crowd.  I could not figure out (and still today) how he could have acted like a friend one moment and go back to the old way of treating me the next. 

                Over the years, I have had other experiences that were similar to that childhood trauma.  God though has always been therefore me.  God has never not shown up at Mass.  I can always find God in the Blessed Sacrament and no matter how much I blamed Him for my problems, questioned Him about my situations, He is always there whispering His love into my heart.  He always has time for me. 
 
9.            I am alright & God wants me to be the very best version of myself.
                This leads me to the next lesson the Mass has taught me and that it is okay to be me.  God loves me no matter what and He is always there helping me become better.  This may be the hardest lesson for me to learn.  So many times in life I have experienced rejection for not fitting a mold that others had designed that sometimes I attribute that same mentality to God.  Jesus reminds us through the Scripture that God loves us all equally and unconditionally.  He loved the tax collectors and prostitutes as much as he loved the chief priests and scribes.  The sad part, the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, did not return that love because they thought they were better than Him.  The others knowing they were not better were able to grow closer to him.

                Jesus teaches us at the Mass that we are all equally loved by God. There is no bouncer at the entrance of the Church checking identification cards.  There is no one telling us to enter through the servant’s entrance or to sit in a certain section because we are not special enough to sit up front.  God desires all of us to be gathered around His table. 
As I reflect upon all that God has given me and tries to teach me at Mass, I can come to only one conclusion and that is God wants me to be the best version of myself as possible.  Following God’s will does not enslave me but rather liberates me.  Like a coach who inspires his players in practice through different drills to become better players, God inspires us through the different parts of the Mass to become better people.  For example, basket ball players become better at rebounds by practicing it; Christians learn to become better at forgiving others by attending Mass.  Throughout the Mass, I get to practice many different virtues, forgiveness, justice, etc. and thus I am learning how to be a better person through the Mass.
 
10.          God’s Ways are not our Ways
                Saint Ignatius of Loyola in his writings suggests that each of us has three enemies that try to prevent us from doing God’s will.  The first enemy is our selves because of original sin; we do not always do the right thing or have the right priorities.  Our second enemy is the world or culture around us.  Our society for example tells us to use force others to do things so that we can get our way.  Jesus on the other hand teaches us to turn the other cheek.  Finally, we Catholics do believe that there is an evil spiritual creature named the devil who desires our misery because he knows our misery upsets God.
                In the Gospel Jesus lays us out for a path to happiness that is contrary to the path that the world lays out for us.  It is up to us to choose which path we will take.  We see for example in the beatitudes (Mathew 5)that Jesus teaches us to be poor in spirit but the world tells us that we need to be focused on gathering wealth to be happy.  The world tells us to hold grudges and seek revenge.  Jesus teaches us to be merciful and turn the other cheek. 
                As Jesus teaches us through His preaching the correct way to heaven, God reinforces that teaching through the Mass.  Left to my own devices, I would never admit that I have made mistakes but yet at the beginning of each Mass we have the penitential rite.  If I was to do things my way, I would spend my time listing my accomplishments not listening to reading from Scriptures that challenge me to be a better person.  St. Paul I think says it best in his letter to the Philippians:  Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him (2:5-9)”. God helps us to understand this great mystery better each and every time we attend Mass with an open heart.