The readings for this week's feast are available at USCCB>>>
I will be presiding at Mass at 5:30pm on Saturday, June 5, 11:00 and 12:30 on Sunday June 6.
The homily from Trinity Sunday is in the library>>>
The last two weeks have begun with a question in my mind: Where are you (in the flesh or in the spirit)? and Who are you (in the Image of God)? This week's homily and thoughts are also a question (let's keep this theme going), What are you?
The answer to the "What are You?" question comes to my mind from the first reading. There we hear that Abram offered the priest one tenth of what he had for a sacrifice to God. We know that behavior as "tithing" or giving one tenth.
The practice of giving one tenth came as a standard offering which indicated that all that we have is the Lord's. So, the symbolic offering of one tenth was the first tenth and the best tenth as a sign that 100% of everything we have comes from God and is marked by his possessing it.
The answer to the question "What are you?" is "A Portion". Each of us is called to recognize ourselves as a part, a piece, a portion. What that says about us is that we belong to a larger whole. In our case, we are a part of the Body of Christ - Corpus Christi.
This is important because too often religious people seek an intimate relationship with God or 'salvation' on their own - "Me and Jesus". Often these folks have rejected the Church and any role that the Body of Christ would have in their salvation.
It cannot be that way for us. In fact, we are only saved in as much as we are united with Jesus Christ, in His Body, the Church(love God and your neighbor as yourself). Communion, that spiritual and real relationship we have with God and others, is essential to our salvation. May we always remember that we are only a portion, a tenth if you will, a part of something much bigger and much more important than ourselves: the Body of Christ.
On a feast dedicated to the Body and Blood of Christ it would be helpful for us to see that our "piece" of Communion is just a portion of the "one loaf" which is Christ's Body. Individually we have great dignity - but alone we are nothing.
Wadayathink?
1 comment:
The last line of Fr. Estok’s reflection is striking – “Individually we have great dignity – but alone we are nothing.” It serves as a reminder that we have responsibility and accountability as individuals – our decisions and actions matter and have consequences; but as individuals, we are not complete or whole. Jesus teaches that whatever actions we take for or against someone else has an effect on Him. What we do to others, we do to Him. Through Him we are all connected – to Him and to one another. It is together that we form one Body. And every time we share in the Eucharist our connection with Him and with one another, with that Body, becomes all the stronger. It reminds me of a play on words from Galatians that I’ve read, “I and no longer I.” This phrase fits with the theme discussion over these past few weeks. I am alive in the flesh, but I try to live in the spirit; I am human, but I am made in the image of a Triune God; I am an individual, but through Christ I am part of a larger Body. Through our life with God, in these various ways, we are different people. “I and no longer I.”
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