-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 and 6:00pm on Sunday
Can you stomach this?
We use many idioms regarding consumption and digestion when speaking about learning, listening, and living knowledge and truth. "I'm going to have to chew on that for a while", "I can't stomach one more word from him", "She drank the Kool-Aid on that", "just hold your nose and swallow", "I devoured the novel", that's a subject I could really sink my teeth into", "I've had it up to here", etc.
Our God, apparently in the biblical revelation, has put these two features of faith in human life together from the beginning. If you recall the knowledge of good and evil was a fruit on the tree that Eve just could not resist. The Passover sacrifice, The manna in the desert, and the Word that came forth from the father and took flash among us was laid in a "mangerr" (a feeding trough for animals). And of course in the Gospel today the truth about who Jesus is as the one sent from the father is bread that you must eat in order to truly live.
In our parish we have been called to deepen and widen the communion of the church. This word communion is used in two fundamental ways, the Eucharistic communion (consecrated bread and wine as the body of Christ) and the church communion (the unity of life and love that we share in the body of Christ, the church). These two realities come together in the communion procession of the holy mass, when we process forward as an ecclesial communion/church communion, one body, to receive and consume the Eucharistic communion. We manifest and express this to-layered consume communion by standing and singing as one body until all members have received. So I guess what we eat and how we eat it are two very important aspects of our faith and understanding.
So the truth about our ecclesial communion is received, consumed, and celebrated in the Eucharistic communion. Right? Rite?
3 comments:
After "mulling" it over for awhile, it struck me how true it is that "we are what we eat". I am thinking about the Word of God, come down from heaven, for which we hunger. We cherish His words of everlasting life - words of truth, mercy, and love. They are words of light that dispel the darkness that can easily invade our world if we take our eyes off of Him. In devouring these words we are always reassured that He is the One to follow and we come to know Him even more deeply as we commune with one another at the Eucharistic table. It's this nourishment of Word, Body and Blood that we consume together - as a family at a dinner table - that we are formed even more deeply as One. We really ARE what we eat - and that's no "yolk"!
The mystery of Communion appears to be the heart of our Catholic Doctrine. We consume Christ, our true food, at the Eucharist which sustains us and unites us in the communion of His church which are the believers. We eat so that we commune with God & man yet not separate but in one church. The more we consume the more we need the fulfillment of communion with the saints.The holiest moment of the mass is a shared sacrifice for all that we carry with us to fulfillment. We don't just eat but we "gnaw on", as the Greek indicates, which feels to me like the sustaining of nourishment and our savoring what we "are" consuming. A mystery only understood by believers in communion yet Christ is so clear in His words so today's Gospel concisely sums up the message of Christ's life. Given up for us so that He became our sustenance as we celebrate & consume so what could be more perfect.
These words that you have written so beautifully express our lives in, and as Eucharist. It is what I think about at the communion of His Sacrifice that we live in Holy Mass. We devour, for nourishment, the Body & Blood. The mystery of Our Lord. How beautiful is this sacred mystery of God's plan. Today we tend to separate all portions of our life yet the essence is we must eat the spiritual food God has provided His people all through history.The fulfillment of all spiritual food is His Son our Lord & Savior. A mystery to those who do not believe and life for those who know and "fear" God.
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