-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass at 5:30 on Sat and 9:30 on Sunday
Corpus Christi: mirror
Great Saint John Paul I I wrote a document called the Church of the Eucharist in 2003. His point is that the Church takes its life from the Eucharist and the Eucharist is the fruit of the Church's life. In other words, for Catholics the church and the Eucharist are mirror images of one another.
My question is .do we as church look into the Eucharist and see our life and calling? Likewise do others look into the church and see the Eucharistic mystery in our living? If not, why not?
Do you see the Eucharistic qualities of you life? Take, bless, break, give? Do you see the presence of your church in the mystery of the Eucharist you celebrate?
Wondering....
3 comments:
The refrain from a song from the late 70s has been playing in my head, 'Our blessing cup is a communion with the blood of Christ;
And the bread we break, it is a sharing in the body of the Lord.
I'm feeling like I'm on the same wavelength ... I ran into an acquaintance, a woman from Church that I haven't seen in years ... She was catching me up in the grocery line on details of the last five years with her children. Capsulizing my last five years of life, death & challenges into five minutes had her dumbstruck. We both shared our love of the Lord, thankful and grateful to God. I ended the conversation with, 'So, is this Altar, (motioning to my heart and her heart) any different than the Altar at Church?' We both agreed it is one in the same.
'Our blessing cup is a communion with the blood of Christ;
And the bread we break, it is a sharing in the body of the Lord.
I can not see the Church without the Eucharist nor the Eucharist without the church; yes, mirror images. I also can not see the Eucharist without seeing the intimacy of Jesus.
For me the Eucharist has become my very life. It is that which I wake up for each morning. To receive life; that is the Eucharist. Each morning to spend those precious loving moments with Christ are the most beautiful moments of the day and to share that with the one dearest to my heart has become my very existence; my very calling.
All the good that I do during the day I feel stems from that sharing of the Eucharist. The few times that I am not able to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist till the evening hours, I truly notice a difference in the way that I relate with others throughout the day.
Even in my prayer life the Eucharist feeds the beauty of prayer. Before each evening's rosary I ask the Lord to let me pray in His Eucharistic Heart.
I like these questions that you ask because they remind us to see the connection of Liturgy and Life. As Joy says above, they are one in the same, and the connection is through our communion with God and one another.
I think that the Eucharist patterns for us the divine way to love. It begins with joyful encounter; it includes mercy and forgiveness along with praise and honor to a most glorious God. It teaches us how to listen to the voice of the One who loves us most - and to find a connection with that Word in our lives so that we are assured that our Beloved is always interested in us and always involved with us. We are reminded of the bond of unity that is both intimate and universal - both today and forever backwards and forwards. This Love consumes us, by us consuming Love - and as with any vibrant love - we are transformed by it and we are compelled to share it with others.
I think if others can see in us that kind of pattern in our day to day living - joyful encounter, desire to give and receive mercy and forgiveness, praise of the Almighty and Ever-living, eager listening, thirst for unity, and ongoing transformation with determination to share - then the Eucharist is being carried well throughout the earth.
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