Fanning the Flame at 2620 Lebanon Avenue, Belleville, IL 6221 US - The Eucharist (17)

About the Author

Nugget*
Quick Reflection*
Commentary*
Questions to Ponder and Discuss*
Prayer Intentions*

Family Connection
Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper 2  (Watch a USCCB Video on the Eucharist)
Suggested Reading


Chapter Nugget:
“It was as though I heard a voice from on high:  I am the food of the strong: eat then of me and grow.  But you will not transform me into yourself like food for the body, but rather you will be transformed into me.”  - St Augustine (354-430) at the time of his conversion

Quick Reflection:

Matisse Reid could not eat.  She was born with a rare condition that prevented her from digesting food.  Her mother called it a cruel trick “because this kid was born to eat.”  At age ten she received a small and large intestine transplant and within six weeks of surgery she was finally able to eat.  For two years Katie has suffered with throat cancer and subsequent complications which prevent her from eating.  Most of us cannot imagine what life is like for Matisse and Katie and countless others who are physically unable to eat—who cannot share a family meal, savor sweet-sour-salty, drink a toast to mark a milestone. 

How many of us would feel a sense of loss if we could not regularly receive the Body and Blood of Christ?  Our brothers and sisters in some countries and even in parts of the United States know that loss.  Our brothers and sisters whose marital status prevents them from receiving communion feel that loss.  Sharing in the Eucharist is so essential that deprivation of the sacrament has even been used to influence voting choices.  The Eucharist is meant to be God’s regular nourishment for each of us.  It is the ritual that invites us to gather as God’s family on ordinary days and on feast days, at times of sorrow and at times of great joy.  We might ask ourselves if we hunger for the Body and Blood of Christ as we hunger for the companionship of family meals and the food and drink we share as we gather around our common stories.  Do we, like Matisse and Katie, truly long for such nourishment?    

For months after my brother received his First Communion, he had such fervor for the Eucharist that Dad took him to a neighboring parish for Mass on the days when our pastor was not home. Reflection on “Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Christian Life” invites each of us to recapture that fervor; to appreciate in new ways the many facets of the “outstanding means whereby the faithful can express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the Church.” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican Council II, n. 2)  The Eucharist is profound.  It is, indeed, the source and summit of our Christian life.

Commentary

“The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1325)  As bodily food sustains our physical life, the Eucharist nourishes our spiritual life and that of our faith community.  It is, in fact, that which keeps our Church in being.  The Eucharist is the sacrament toward which all other sacraments are oriented, for this is where we experience a unique intimacy with Christ and are related to each other with bonds that make no social, economic, political or racial distinctions.  This fellowship in the Eucharistic community is where we all meet as equals—a foretaste of the all-inclusive banquet in the Reign of God. 

The Eucharist is a communal act of worship that memorializes sacramentally Christ’s redeeming death, makes Christ wholly and entirely present within us and among us, and transforms us to go out and live that which we celebrate.  We cannot fathom the tremendous depth of this great sacrament, but hopefully focusing on a few elements may create in us a hunger to know more about this sacrament which is ours to receive over and over again.  

That which we call the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Eucharistic Liturgy (among other terms) is a ritual to which all people can relate.  It is a meal, an essential part of life.  In the oriental culture of Jesus’ day a shared meal was a sign of communality, trust and peace.  Jesus’ last meal with his disciples followed the basic structure of such a meal: words of blessing over bread and wine followed by sharing them.  At that last meal Jesus identified the bread and wine as his own body and blood.  Sensing his impending death, Jesus spoke of himself as a sacrifice.  In distributing the bread and wine, his body and blood, Jesus indicated that his disciples were to share in his sacrifice and in the power of his atoning death.  After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples repeated this ritual meal.  Language and specific words have changed through the centuries, but the basic structure of the Eucharistic Liturgy has been with us since the second century.

We approach the Eucharist with a healthy tension between the intimacy of bread and wine and the incomprehensible depth of what it means to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is a memorial which makes present the saving event that is Christ’s death and resurrection.  The same Christ who offered himself once and for all on the cross is offered on the altar each time we gather to celebrate the Eucharistic Liturgy.  We commemorate Jesus’ brokenness—his body is broken and his blood poured out—even as we recognize our own brokenness and need for redemption.  If we are not challenged enough by the fact that the Eucharist is the great social equalizer, we might find ourselves struggling with the very idea of our common poverty in the face of Jesus’ redemptive act.  It takes great courage to recognize this.  The poet Mageleine L’Engle writes: …the taste of brine,/warm from fresh tears, is in the glass.  Choosy/guests will not come here.  The bread is body/broken.  The wine is dark with blood.  I’m doubting/if half of those invited will turn up./ Most will prefer a different table,/will go elsewhere with gentler foods to sup.”

Most of us have at times drifted away from the Eucharist emotionally if not physically.  Yet, we are always challenged to actively participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy as a community of believers, flawed yet graced, joined in praise of our God.  Conscious of our sinfulness and repentant of those sins, we gather to listen to the word of God and to share the Body and Blood of Christ.  When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ we say “amen,” “yes”—a yes that makes present the yes of our Baptism that made us a part of the worshiping Body of Christ, a yes that re-commits us each time we receive.  Then we move from worship to service as we take the nourishment we just received from Christ and translate it into service. 

St. Augustine, preaching to the newly baptized, said, “Receive what you are.”  Those same words are addressed to us.  We will spend our lives trying to live and be Eucharist, striving always to make Eucharist the attitude with which we meet life both when we are in church and when we are in the marketplace.  The Eucharist is more than a ritual meal.  It is the source and summit of our Christian life.

Discussion Questions

2.     Does my participation in the Eucharistic Liturgy translate into service?  Am I more conscious of the need to care for others—the poor, those whom I distrust, those who annoy me—because of my participation in the Eucharistic Liturgy?

3.     Do I let differences with the pastor, less-than-perfect musical accompaniment, inconvenient Mass schedules, etc. influence my participation in the Eucharistic Liturgy?  What can I do to be more fully engaged in celebrating with the Eucharistic community?

Suggested Prayer Intentions

--for a greater appreciation and reverence for the Eucharist

--that our sharing in the Eucharist may lead us to greater service

--for those who feel alienated from the Eucharistic community


Family Connection   (Put on your imagination with you older kids and consider this piece...)

Myles Connolly introduced the world to his title character, Mr.Blue, in 1928.  Within the novel, J. Blue, a mystic whose unconventional life still has much to teach a world steeped in materialism and hungry for power, tells a story of his image of the end of the world.  In the story the last Christian is believed to have been put to death by the International Government of the World (IGW) and people lead mechanical lives in a sterile world.  Eating as we know it has been replaced by a liquid diet dispensed from three different pipes.  In addition to water there are two other fluids, one has lubricating qualities and the other has sustaining and fueling qualities.  Unlike his fellow automatons, No. 2,757,311 spends his Restday afternoon out on a secluded hillside through spring and summer.  One day in autumn he returns to his vault secreting a small package.  That day he had harvested his wheat, beaten it into flour, mixed it with water and baked it over a fire.  That night he unpacks a parcel he had brought with him when he was  herded into captivity.  He has a bottle with dark red liquid and a book.  Two hours before dawn he takes the bottle and book along with the bread he had made and goes to the top of a gigantic structure that towers over the city, a monument to one of the founders of the IGW.  He is discovered bending over his makeshift altar and the city is quickly awakened to this act of treason, the liturgy of the Eucharist.  As a plane prepares to drop a bomb on the tower, the priest prays, “Hoc est enim corpus meum….”  The bomb does not drop.  Instead, there is a burst of light “and through this unspeakably luminous new day, through the vault of the sky ribbed with lightning came Christ as He had come after the Resurrection….  The kingdom of the Anti-Christ disappeared like ashes in a whirlwind.” 

Perhaps most of us don’t think of the Eucharist in such a dramatic way; but daily, weekly, monthly it is no less efficacious.  Indeed, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. 

Digging Deeper
My love for the Eucharist has certainly grown and deepened since May 2, 1953 when I received my First Communion at St. Joseph’s Church in Prairie du Rocher. Many things have influenced that development: educational opportunities, growth in prayer, the example of others. However, there are two special moments that took place during the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy that have been uniquely significant.

One Sunday morning I arrived late for the liturgy with the Eucharistic community at St. Joseph Parish in Springfield, IL so I ended up in the back of church.  Even later than me was a homeless man whose belongings were contained in a large brown grocery bag.  He and his bag ended up in the pew in front of me.  He apparently saw no need to remove his knit hat for the celebration.  I found myself distracted throughout the Liturgy of the Word and even during the Liturgy of the Eucharist; admittedly not because I saw in him a reminder of the Eucharist as the “great equalizer,” the place where rich and poor gather as equals—a foretaste of the all-inclusive banquet in the Reign of God.  Rather, I was distracted because I was going to have to shake his hand at the sign of peace.  Since I had spent the day before working in the garden and had a few scratches to prove it, all the hygiene cautions kicked in.  Surely his hands were dirty!  He turned around at the sign of peace, flashed a friendly smile and offered his hand.  As I took it, I had the privilege of looking into beautiful blue eyes that carried a certain depth of sorrow but also an unmistakable peace.  I received the richness of God’s peace from a nameless friend who probably had no idea how deeply he touched me.  To this day he challenges me to take seriously Jesus’ command to wash each other’s feet.  Only in that way can I truly receive and give Eucharist. 

In recent years I have been challenged by the directive that the chalices used at the Eucharistic Liturgy have to be made of precious metal.  We use gold chalices at the Ruma Center where I regularly participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy; but prior to that we used crystal glasses and, as an Adorer of the Blood of Christ, I considered it a wonderful gift to “see” the Precious Blood.  I’ve struggled with the seeming inappropriateness, even the pretentiousness, of gold.  I’m challenged by St. Ambrose’s words, “He who sent forth his apostles without gold had no need of gold to form his church.  The church possesses gold, not to horde, but to scatter abroad and come to the aid of the unfortunate.”  But one day when the chalice was raised I saw reflected in the gold the faces of my sisters with whom I was worshipping.  These senior members of my religious community were the poor to whom and with whom I minister.  And they each carried thousands of people to whom and with whom they have ministered in the course of their lives.  Instead of masking the Precious Blood, that shiny gold brought me a new awareness of why I participate in the Eucharistic Liturgy.  The questions become: What do I horde?  What gifts am I called to scatter abroad?  Only in that way can I truly receive and give Eucharist.

Digging Deeper 2


Click here to watch the USCCB video on the Eucharist
 

Additional Reading

• The Breaking of the Bread: the Development of the Eucharist According to the Acts of the Apostles by Eugene LaVerdiere (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1998)
• The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World by Monika K. Hellwig (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1992)
• Models of the Eucharist by Kevin W. Irwin (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005
• Our One Great Act of Fidelity: Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist by Ronald Rolheiser (NY: Doubleday, 2011)

About the Author:

S. Barbara Jean Franklin’s initial faith formation took place within the parish community at St. Joseph’s in Prairie du Rocher under the influence of parents who valued commitment to parish life and the Adorers of the Blood of Christ whose presence added a special dimension to parish and school life.  She holds a degree in English from St. Louis University and Master’s Degrees in Educational Administration and Supervision and in Adult Christian Community Development from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and Regis University in Denver, respectively.  S. Barbara Jean has been a vowed member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ for 45 years and has ministered in Catholic education in the Belleville Diocese as well as in the Dioceses of Jefferson City, MO and Springfield-in-Illinois.  She has also served in leadership in her religious community.  Currently she serves as Property Director at the Adorers’ Ruma Center.  Additionally, she enjoys leading retreats and days of prayer and delights in being able to give back to her home parish by teaching PSR classes to the 7^th and 8^th graders at St. Joseph’s in Prairie du Rocher.  She has recently completed a series books, Through Another Lens: Reflections on the Sunday Gospels, published by Liguori Publications.