Our experience of the Divine Liturgy should lead us to outreach. Christ offered Himself "for the life of the world." The "we" of the Divine Liturgy embraces all people.

When the priest says just before the final blessing "let us go forth in peace," it does not mean "the Divine Liturgy is over, you can go home for coffee," but rather, "the Divine Liturgy after the Divine Liturgy has just begun; take the Liturgy out into the world; go and serve the world for which Christ offered His life."

When we refer to the consecrated gifts as "Offerings," let us not forget that the essence of gifts is to be shared. The Dismissal, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, is both an end and at the same time a beginning.

Aside from the altar of the church, there is another altar that we see every day, wherever we go, in the marketplace, on the streets and alleys. At this second altar, we can offer a sacrifice to God all the time; and yet we ignore it, we pass by it indifferently, we treat it with disdain.

And what is this second altar? It is our fellow human beings, the poor and marginalized, those who suffer, the victims of injustice…