March 28, 2008. Anniversary day for me. I celebrate with these words from Franciscan Richard Rohr. They correspond beautifully with yesterday's blog entry, Delaney Melissa's birthday, my friend Greg's death, and all upcoming "First Communion" celebrations.Sweet intersections, "promises" indeed.
Amen.
Melissa
"The Promise of Jesus"
Jesus promised that when we celebrate the Eucharist, he will be present to us. That has been the unwavering faith of the catholic Church since the New Testament. The Eucharist has been at the center of our Church from the beginning, and rightly so. It has given us the power of community, the power to understand ourselves as one universal people, beyond nations and races. It's given us the power of healing and reconciliation. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, the Church is redefined as people, as a big family, around our family table, the altar. Jesus gives us himself at Eucharist to remind us: We are becoming what we eat. We are his body, we are his flesh for the life of the world. When we eat this meal we are united to Christians all over the world, who this very hour are celebrating this same Eucharist in many different languages and countries. Someone said, If we really understood Eucharist, how could there ever be war? How could we go out in that world and kill people who have eaten this same bread and have drank from this same cup? The Eucharist defines humanity as one flesh, one people, and if you hate this flesh, you hate the flesh of Christ himself. Eucharist is the gift that makes us a sacred and universal people.
Fr. Richard Rohr in The Symbolism and Meaning of Mass,
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