Words from Our Pastor - 40 Hours Devotion Holy Eucharist

Saint Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church

Upper Uwchlan Township, PA

Forty Hours Devotions: November 3-4-5, 2019

Preacher: Rev. Thomas M. Mullin

Theme: Continuing to Grow as a Community of Disciples with God at the Center of our Lives

Tuesday Evening: Reflections on the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist

[Readings: Ephesians 4:1-6; Psalm 116; John 6:51-58]

Well, after looking at Baptism and Confirmation on Sunday and Monday, tonight we reflect upon the third sacrament of Initiation: the Holy Eucharist.

There is a working principle in liturgical theology that asserts: “How we pray both expresses and shapes what we believe and who we are.” That is, when we pray the liturgy, we express the truth of who we are now and we become more fully who we are called to be as children of the Father and disciples of Jesus.

So tonight, let’s take a look at what we believe about the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist as that faith is expressed in two short liturgical texts.

First, consider the antiphon that we prayed with the Magnificat on Monday:

In the Holy Eucharist, Christ is our food; his passion is recalled; grace fills our hearts; and we receive a pledge of the glory to come.

This one-line prayer includes four key affirmations about the Holy Eucharist:

1) “Christ is our food” - Holy Communion is God’s response to our petition in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is here that Jesus Himself becomes our daily bread, a nourishing food for the journey through life.

2) “His passion is recalled” - at every Mass we re-present or make present here and now the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ salvific Death and Resurrection. We celebrate the salvation won for us when Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice on the Cross for the redemption of humanity. And as St. Augustine tells us, we offer ourselves and our daily lives to God the Father together with Jesus: One eternal sacrifice made present each day on the altar.

3) “grace fills our hearts” - As in all the sacraments, so in the Holy Eucharist, God is at work through the ministry of the Church bestowing His grace upon us to empower us to live faithfully as members of the Body of Christ united with one another through our communion with Jesus. This grace, this spiritual energy, this divine power transforms us day by day into our truest identity as children of God.

4) “we receive a pledge of the glory to come” - When we gather at the altar for Mass, we experience a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy described in the Book of Revelation. At the altar, the entire family of all God’s children are united with one another in praise and thanksgiving. As the hymn proclaims: “We, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.”

In the Holy Eucharist, Christ is our food; his passion is recalled; grace fills our hearts; and we receive a pledge of the glory to come.

Wow: all that good liturgical theology jam-packed into a single, one-line antiphon!

Now consider briefly the text of the prayer we have been using at Benediction this week, a prayer that articulates the long-range purpose of the Holy Eucharist (what some modern business-oriented folks might call the “desired outcome” or “end-game”) in these words:

Grant, O Lord, we pray, that nourished with the Sacrament of your Son's Body and Blood, we may grow in the communion of the Holy Spirit and in love for one another, and so, through your grace, reach the full stature of the Body of Christ.

This prayer makes clear that one’s personal nourishment is not the ultimate fruit of the Holy Eucharist. Rather the daily nourishment we receive in Holy Communion serves a greater three-fold divine intention:

1) “grow in the communion of the Holy Spirit” - This third sacrament of Initiation supports our continuing growth in the Holy Spirit bestowed upon us at Baptism and Confirmation.

2) “grow in love for one another” - The Holy Eucharist is never simply about “me and Jesus,” but rather our communion with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist creates and sustains our communion of love with one another in Him. We are “in it together” when we gather at the altar!

3) “reach the full stature of the Body of Christ” - When all God’s children are fully united with one another in Christ, this full stature of the Body of Christ will be realized. Only then will Jesus’s prophetic words be realized: “The kingdom of God is at hand!”

Here again, we find lots of good “food for thought” in the words of a single prayer!

Having said all this, I hope it is clearer to you all that the big question is not: “Why do I have to go to Mass?” The real question is: “How long can I or anyone survive and continue striving to live the life of a Christian disciple in a materialistic world that denies transcendent faith and does not embrace the moral values proclaimed by Jesus in the Gospel?” Each of us needs the daily bread of the Holy Eucharist; we simply can’t live without it!

In the end, all of us who have been initiated into the Body of Christ through the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist are called each day to continue growing together as a community of disciples with God at the center of our lives. The God of Life has given us the gift of human life and has invited us to share in the gift of eternal life through incorporation into the Death and Resurrection of His Son, Jesus. In fulfillment of His promise, Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to guide us day by day and comes to us in the Holy Eucharist to nourish and sustain us along the way from here to eternity!

Thank you for joining in our Forty Hours Devotions this year, and may God continue to bless you, all your loved ones and all the people of Saint Elizabeth Church in the coming Advent-Christmas Season. And Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!