Living Christ's Eucharist in Our Daily Lives: February 2007

Friday, February 2, 2007

Live Christ's Eucharist in Your Daily Life!

Christ died for us – really died for us. He did not die in the abstract world of theological ruminations. He died for us in the reality of our daily lives. Jesus of Nazareth had to die, and the Risen Christ had to rise. And this dying and rising make all the difference in the world to us as Catholic Christians.

“Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life…”

“By your cross and resurrection you have set us free…”

Once we experience this reality in the concrete events of our lives – that Christ destroyed death for us and restores us to life when the world tries to hurt us, constrain us, betray us – then our lives are richer, fuller, more meaningful, better. Once we experience this new freedom in the concrete events of our lives, then our lives are richer, fuller and more meaningful, better.

It is through His Passion, Death and Resurrection we can come into the fullness of life, the abundance of life, the complete joy that he promises us (see John 10:10; 15:11).

So, we need to understand and his Passion, Death and Resurrection and to live this reality in the concrete events of our daily lives.

The Eucharist embodies the fullness of this reality. His Eucharist is our resurrection from our own passion and death. His Eucharist is our Good News.

This set of nine reflections – divided into individual posts - offers you the chance to enter more deeply into the experience of Jesus of Nazareth so that you can appreciate what he did for us – for you! – and so come to live in that reality in a whole new way.

Ask in the Lord in prayer to help you understand more deeply the mystery of his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

And feel Him come into your life in a whole new way.

1. Jesus of Nazareth Knows Our Sufferings

Jesus of Nazareth was both fully divine and fully human, “like us in all things but sin.” So, Jesus of Nazareth experienced human life as we experience it. As the Risen Christ who sits in Glory at the Father’s right hand, he knows how human beings suffer at human hands because he suffered at human hands too. Scripture affirms this fundamental likeness between the Risen Christ and us and comes to an extraordinary conclusion:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who is every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin…Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).

As a good Jew, Jesus of Nazareth loved God, family and neighbor. He spoke out against injustice, unkindness and dishonesty. He gave hope to the poor, the disenfranchised, and the alien. He criticized religious leaders who not only failed to respond to injustice, but who only congratulated themselves on being “religious” and so superior. Jesus was a whistleblower, an activist, and animator, what Scripture calls a prophet.

Inevitably, people misunderstood him and failed to respond to him, took him for granted, and even deserted him. Religious leaders condemned him and plotted against him. And he responded as you and I might under the same circumstances:

He lost his ability to help people when confronted by their lack of willingness to be helped, their cynicism and skepticism. “He was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:1-6).

He was “grieved at the hardness of heart” of leaders who failed to respond to human need (Mark 3:1-5).

He was angry with the moneychangers in the temple who turned work of moral worth into self-promotion and self-satisfaction (John 2:13-17).

He felt fear at the prospect of his betrayal, passion and crucifixion (John 12:27; 13:21) and mostly notably in the Garden when he sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:44).

Now, translate the formal language of Scripture into the words of our own experience:

Have you become discouraged in your attempts to be helpful because people doubt your intentions or your ideas, say, in your family or your parish?

Have you seen official indifference to people’s suffering (think: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans)?

Have you seen powerful people hurt “average” people for their own gain (think: Enron)?

Have you been afraid to make a decision in your family or at work for fear of disapproval and threats?

Notice how similar our experience of human life is to his. This means that we can trust in him to “know our weaknesses” because he experienced weakness and opposition. “So let us approach the throne of grace with boldness,” because Jesus of Nazareth knows our sufferings.

2. We Walk Where Jesus Walked

The Risen Christ, who was Jesus of Nazareth, knows human suffering, because he suffered in his humanity. To enter into the mystery of his Eucharist, we must understand that there is a fundamental identity between Jesus’ experience of suffering and ours.

We must grasp this identity. Suppose in the place where you work, you recognize that something dishonest is being done, or that the company is discriminating against a person or group of people. You might decide to speak up, to be a whistleblower. That would be the right thing to do. But it could easily bring you opposition, anger, or resentment. People might talk about you behind your back and misrepresent what you said. Your speaking out might even cost you a promotion or your job. Your suffering in this case is an exact partner to Jesus’ suffering: you stand for justice and so are persecuted, just as he was. This mistreatment is what Jesus experienced when he was brought before the religious authorities and the Romans.

Suppose you need to make certain decisions in your family about finances, where and when to vacation, what curfew to establish for your children, or whether to challenge a parent on drinking too much. This decision might be bad news for the hearer: “We can’t take our usual, week-long vacation this year.” “You have to be home at midnight.” And you are anxious about the backlash when you announce this decision. Your anxiety is the same as Jesus’ anxiety in the Garden: “I must do what is right, but I will suffer if I do.”

Suppose you lose your job because you’re a whistleblower, or your husband leaves you without an income to marry a much younger woman, or if your children stop talking to you for a while, then they have crucified you. You are innocent, but they mistreat you.

(Remember too the converse: if you are the husband leaving an older wife, or a spouse having an affair, or a child snubbing a parent, you have crucified them.)

In these cases your suffering is the same suffering Jesus endured. And the remedy is the same: don’t be tempted to give up on God (next post); yield to the Father’s love (following post); and meet Jesus in his Eucharist where his broken body and blood poured out brings an anointing of the Father’s love on all who are gathered together.

We live Jesus’ Eucharist in our daily lives as we act rightly and justly, take on the suffering that right acting evokes, and receive the Father’s love that carries us into new life.

3. Don't Give Up on God

When we are treated unjustly or disrespectfully or maliciously, a natural reaction is to feel hurt and angry. The hurt and anger make us want to give up or to run away from human tormentors. We can also be tempted to blame God, to give up on God, and to run away from God.

“Why did God let this happen?”
“I’ve been a good person, so God should take care of me.”
“How can God claim to love me if he lets this happen?”

In Luke 22:42 Jesus is tempted to give up: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” He has worked hard at his ministry, but the opposition has grown intense. “As a matter of my own personal, preference, I don’t want to face the savagery of those who hate me,” he seems to say, “so if it is up to me, I want to walk away from all this.”

In “The Passion of the Christ” Mel Gibson emphasizes this temptation by showing us Satan lurking in the shadows of Gethsemane. Jesus felt this temptation acutely, and his anguish caused him to sweat drops of blood.

But Jesus lived in a fundamental relationship of love and trust with the Father and had committed himself to the Father’s project of Building the Kingdom. He knew that he had a unique role in this project, one that only he could play. “And what should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” (John 12:27). So, Jesus resisted the temptation to run away, to give up on his followers, and to give up on God.

We too must resist the temptation to give up on God. We must come to realize that when we suffer, we are Jesus’ partner in his suffering, and he is our partner in ours. We are never alone in these sufferings. Jesus is with us, and he asks us to be with him. He will be faithful to the end. But we must not give up on God.

When we remain faithful in our trials, we live Jesus’ Eucharist – his body broken, his blood poured out – even as we face those who would break our bodies and spill our blood.

4. Yield to the Father's Love

In the face of the temptation to run away, to give up on God and humanity, Jesus of Nazareth recommitted himself to the Father and the work the Father had given him to do. “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). “Not my personal, immediate, and individual preference, but your cosmic program of Building the Kingdom,” he readily acknowledges.

At this moment “an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength” (Luke 22:43). The Greek word for angel – “angellos” – is also translated “messenger.” The Father sent a messenger to the Son to give him strength and courage to face the hatred, anger, envy and resentment of his religious opponents and the cowardice and corruption of the Roman officials.

Remember: The Risen Christ knows our sufferings. We walk where Jesus walked. In our times in the Garden, the Risen Christ sends us angels, messengers from himself to strengthen us.

In the Penitential Rite at the beginning of mass the priest says, “Lord Jesus, you give us yourself to heal us and bring us strength. Lord, have mercy!” We all respond, “Lord, have mercy!” And so the Lord does have mercy on us - in the concrete events of our lives and in the Eucharist.

St Teresa of Avila understood that God had asked her to create new, reformed Carmelite houses of her day. Her taking on this work generated intense opposition.

“Sometimes it seemed that everything was going wrong. This was particularly so one day, before the arrival of the Provincial, when the Prioress ordered me to have no more to do with (the new convent) and to give it up altogether. I went to God and said, ‘Lord, this (new convent) is not mine; it has been founded for Thee; and now there will be no one to carry on the negotiations, so Thy Majesty must do so.’ This calmed me and left me as free from worry as if I had had the whole world carrying on the negotiations of me. From that moment I left quite sure (it) would prosper.”

From The Autobiography of Teresa of Avila.

In her distress St Teresa remained committed to the work the Lord had given her, but asked for his help in carrying it on and consoling her in her distress. And the Lord clearly did so.

We live Christ’s Eucharist in our daily lives as we see him act on our behalf and as we feel him giving us strength and courage to face the difficulties and challenges of our lives.

5. Jesus and the Father Break the Power of Sin and Death

So Jesus of Nazareth has resisted the temptation to run away or give up on God and has yielded to the Father’s love. Now comes to the moment when his opponents accuse him, torture him, and humiliate him, causing him to suffer the worst punishment the Romans could imagine. In the Gospel of John we see him presented to his enemies, beaten, robed in scarlet with the crown of thorns. In the Gospel of Mark we see him feeling so alienated even from the Father that he can only quote Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

But then, in Mark and most dramatically in Matthew, “darkness came over the whole land…the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27:45, 51-52).

What is happening? Jesus of Nazareth is dying, of course. But, much more importantly, as Jesus of Nazareth dies, the Father reaches down into the physical darkness and the moral darkness of the worst of human sin – and pulls his son through sin and death into new life as the Risen Christ in Glory. As the Father pulls the Son through sin and death, he breaks the hold that sin and death have over Jesus of Nazareth. The now Risen Christ is triumphant over sin and death forever.

“Dying you destroyed our death! Rising you restored our life…!” we say in the mass when the priest asks us to “proclaim the mystery of our faith.”

This was a mutual action of Father and Son – Jesus of Nazareth giving up his human life to sin and death, and the Father leading his Son beyond the reach and power of human sin and death. By this mutual action the Father and Son have destroyed the power of sin and death, of human hatred, envy, and resentment to have lasting and ultimate power over us.

A key moment in the Eucharist is the Fracture Rite, the moment when the priest holds up the consecrated Host and breaks it, and the assembly sings “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us, grant us peace.” The Fracture Rite, the breaking of the consecrated Host enacts yet again Jesus’ body being broken on the cross. The pouring of the consecrated Wine enacts yet again Jesus’ blood being spilled.

At this moment the Father reaches down into the midst of the assembled congregation and breaks the power of sin and death to hurt us who participate ultimately. The sin that wounds each of us in the concrete details of our daily lives and the death that threatens us in our daily lives – the power of this sin and death is broken again at that point in the mass.

We live Christ’s Eucharist in our daily lives as we face the challenges and encounters that confront us, knowing that the sin done to us and the death that threatens us cannot hurt us ultimately because of Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. “…Lord Jesus, come in glory!”

6. We Don't Have to Be Afraid!

Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ in Glory, and the Father, working together in the power of the Holy Spirit, have ensured that sin and death have no ultimate power over us, no matter what we may face in our lives. As we participate in the Eucharist and engage God in the actions of our lives, God places his own awesome power over sin and death at the center of our lives.

Once you and I can feel assured that God is truly Emmanuel – God with us – and that his love pours this power into our lives, we can come to realize that we don’t have to be afraid. We can face the challenges of each day in the assurance of God’s love and power at the center of our lives. “By your cross and resurrection you have set us free…!” we say in the mass when the priest asks us to “proclaim the mystery of our faith.”

This does not mean, of course, that we will never face opposition or challenge again. Quite the contrary. Our lives, spent building his Kingdom, will always attract opposition from those motivated by envy, self-importance, and personal gain. The more dedicated to the Kingdom we become, the stronger this opposition can be.

But as we make the cross of Christ and sacrifice of Christ central to our own lives, we can receive God’s sustaining help in the face of trial.

The Good News of Christ is that his Resurrection is also central to our lives. And so we can count not only on his presence in the face of trial but also that he will pull us through these trials into fuller and more abundant life. The Lord does this for us, just as the Father pulled the Son through sin and death into the fullness of resurrected life.

My father always feared death and so always contemplated suicide. But in his hour of trial his attempt at suicide failed on a dark, cold, forbidding January day. Nonetheless, he entered into death with ample pain-relieving medication and his family around him. The next morning the sun shone brightly, the cold air was crisp, and the feeling was one of renewal and rebirth. And so it was. The Lord in his love had led my father through death into new life, just as he had led my family and me through the death of our father into new life. The brilliant sunlight was the Lord’s testimony to us that he – the Lord of Heaven and Earth – had triumphed once more over human fear, limitation, and death.

So, it is as we celebrate the Eucharist. “Lord, I am unworthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.” And so we are.

7. Jesus Shares a Sign of Hope with His Friends

“(Jesus) always loved those who were his own in the world. When the time came for him to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, he showed the depth of his love” (Eucharistic Prayer IV).

As he approached his last days Jesus wanted to leave his followers a sign and symbol of what he was going to do for them through his Passion, Death and Resurrection. And so, “on the night he was betrayed, he took bread and gave you thanks and praise…When supper was ended, he took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise …”

Why bread? Why wine? Because they were simple, ordinary things there on the table that could represent something broken and spilled. Breaking bread looks like breaking a body. Pouring wine looks like spilling blood.

At the Last Supper Jesus made these simple things and these simple actions the centerpiece of a ceremony that portrayed his suffering and death ritually. He wanted to keep this ceremony simple so that his friends could easily remember the actions and meaning of what he was doing and so repeat it when he was no longer with them: “Whenever you do this, do this in memory of me.”

Of course, we believe that the Eucharist is not only sign and symbol but also the reality of what he did for us, Jesus Really Present each time we celebrate the Eucharist together. As we participate in the Eucharist, it is important to remember these core actions and their meaning, to watch for them, and engage our imaginations and hearts as the bread and wine are consecrated, broken and poured, and distributed to those present. In particular, remember that this sign of hope gives each one of us hope in the concrete details of our daily lives.

8. The Church is Born as Jesus Dies

At the crucifixion, according to the Gospel of John, we find Jesus’ Mother and the Beloved Disciple standing at the foot of the cross (John 19:25b). This scene presents us several essential themes.

First, recall that in the Gospel of John the Beloved Disciple is never given a name. Why no name? The author of the Gospel may have wanted us each to realize that we are Jesus’ Beloved Disciples. Remember at the Last Supper Jesus says that his followers are his friends, not his servants (John 15:15). So, we stand as friends, the Beloved Disciples of Jesus, at the foot of the cross.

Second, Jesus on the cross gives his Mother into the Beloved Disciple’s care. “Woman, here is your son…Here is your mother…” (John 19:26ff). So, not only do we stand at the cross as his friends, but we also stand with his Mother, whom he has given into our care.

Third, in the first chapter of the Gospel, John the Baptist says twice as Jesus approaches, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” The crucifixion (John 19) occurs just at the time when the lambs were being slain in the Temple for the Passover, underlining the Baptist’s early prediction that Jesus is the Lamb that was slain.

Fourth, “But when (the soldiers) came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out” (John 19:33-34).

In Catholic tradition this is the moment at which the Church is born. Notice how these four themes merge in this scene: the Son – the Lamb of God – who has died for his Beloved Disciples and is being raised to new life by the Father; the Mother of God given into the care of the Beloved Disciples who are the friends and followers of Jesus; and Jesus’ body broken and his blood poured out for us, his friends.

These Eucharistic symbols – Jesus the Lamb of God (John 1), the bread of life and his blood as living food (John 6), the Living water (John 7), the community of Beloved Disciples gathered at this place and time with his Mother – were present at the crucifixion and are present at every Eucharist as the realities of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection.

In Catholic tradition the Church is the Body of Christ. The Church is the People of God. And the Church is most visible when the People of God are gathered for the Eucharist. Catholic tradition bases this teaching on the scene at the crucifixion. As we gather for the Eucharist we relive that scene with all its saving power, the power of his Real Presence at the center of his people, the Church, who are sustained as well by his Blessed Mother.

“Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again!”

9. I Shall Be Healed!

In the Eucharist we celebrate the reality that Christ, who is Really Present, breaks the power of the sin and death in our lives, and the Father, in raising his Son into new life, pours yet new love upon his people, the Church, to give us peace.

We need Christ to save us from the power of sin and death because we cannot do this for ourselves. And so at the beginning of the Eucharist we ask for the Lord’s help: “Lord, have mercy…” Then, just as Jesus’ body is broken one more time and his blood poured out (“Lamb of God,…”), we admit one more time to the Lord how much we need his help: “Lord, I am unworthy to receive you...”

In other words, we are saying, “Lord, the sinfulness of the world that has hurt me so much keeps me from loving you and loving those who have hurt me. I can’t love, I can’t act justly, I can’t forgive, because I am too hurt, I am in too much pain.”

And, “Lord, not only can I not love nor act justly nor forgive, but I act in anger, I act unfairly, and I hate those who have hurt me. I don’t want to behave this way, but my own emotion is so intense.”

Having recognized that we suffer from sin done to us and sin we committed, we then make a statement of faith in Christ’s love for us and our belief that he will help us if we ask in faith: “…only say the word, and I shall be healed.” “I believe, Lord, that you desire to heal me and will heal me when I ask. So I am asking you now.”

The healing we ask for at this point in the Eucharist is the remedy for the damage created in us through the sin done to us and the sin we do. If we have trouble forgiving, the Lord’s healing helps us forgive. If we have trouble acting justly, the Lord’s healing helps us act justly. If we have trouble not responding in anger, the Lord’s healing helps us respond in peace.

Notice how concrete this healing is. We can begin the healing process even as we receive the Eucharist. As we continue this process, we can discover subtle changes in our interior selves if we are attentive. This healing not only can moderate our immediate anger, but the healing can moderate and drain away anger and other troublesome emotions that cling to our memories. Memories of childhood hurts, mistreatment, and sorrow can lose their sting, and we can come to leave in greater interior peace.

So, as we leave the place where we have celebrated the Eucharist, we have received a blessing from the Lord that can remain with us, especially as we renew that blessing through regular participation in the Eucharist, personal prayer, and spiritual conversation.

Living Christ's Eucharist in Our Daily Lives