The Ark, which represented the presence of God among His people, had been housed in various places after its recovery from the Philistines. Kind David permanently set up the ark in Jerusalem, his capital city. It was a momentous occasion. The people carried the ark with shouts of joy and David himself, in a kind of ecstasy, danced before the Lord with abandon. In one word, it was a celebration.

The Mass is our celebration, not merely of the presence of God among us, but of the fact that God has united us with Himself through the body and blood of His son, making us brothers and sisters of Jesus. That is a truth worthy of celebration.

The root meaning of the word, "celebration" in Latin means a gathering of people. Celebration is something you cannot do alone. A celebration is always festive, and that necessarily includes people. The Mass is not meant to be a private devotion but a celebration of God's people.

Celebration centres around an event. You have to have a reason to celebrate. The great event we observe in the Mass is that Jesus in "dying destroyed our death and in rising restored our life." The Mass, no matter what the occasion, is always the celebration of an event, the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Mass is our joyful, community experience of God's love for us.