Mary as our fellow pilgrim

Introduction

As we reflect on our following of Christ as missionaries of His redemptive love, we recall with gratitude that “cloud of witnesses” who have preceded us and continue to inspire us with the example of their life.  Today we turn our thoughts to Mary, that unique individual who played such an important role as the Mother of Jesus.  The Church holds her up for all Christians to imitate as our model of faith.  Christians of all cultures and in the most varied places have a special devotion to her.  We look to her today as a fellow pilgrim who has much to teach us and who inspires us by her example. 

During this retreat I have attempted to indicate some key elements in living a Precious Blood Spirituality.  I hope that through all the reflections and your personal prayer, that you were able to put together a spirituality which will help you to be faithful to the mission of witnessing to God’s Redemptive love as you walk in solidarity with the poor and suffering of our world.

Openness to God

Mary is a good example of a contemplative person.  She continually meditates on God’s Word and is completely open to be formed by it.  Ecce!  Here I am Lord, to do Your Will.  She let herself be led by the Lord’s Will even when it was a mystery she did not fully comprehend, even when it was challenging.  Fiat!  To accept the Announcement of the Angel was to embark on an adventure of faith that is mind-boggling.  And yet she was totally disposed and available to accept God’s Will for her and at many times during her life, would sit in awe before the mystery as it unfolded around her, trying to discern what it was that was happening and what God wanted of her.  Mary was indeed a contemplative but in no way disconnected from the life around her.  Her meditation on the Word of God led her to an ever-deepening commitment and involvement in the Mystery which overshadowed her.  Her contemplation led her to involvement and to place her entire life at the service of God’s Plan and at the service of others.  It was this capacity for meditating on God’s Word and for discerning in it a mission that moved Jesus to pronounce those somewhat mysterious words to the crowds who had announced that his Mother and brothers were outside waiting for Him.  “But who is my Mother?  And, who are my brothers?  THOSE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND PUT IT INTO PRACTICE, THEY are my Mother and my brothers!”

The Visitation

Having said this, let us now turn to the account of the Visitation taken from the Gospel of Luke.  In this beautiful narration of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth we discover a vivid example for living a missionary spirituality.

“During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

And Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.

The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.

He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy,

according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.”(1:39-56)

           

We can discover in this beautiful text many of the elements of a spirituality for mission.  What light can the story of the Visitation give to our understanding of such a spirituality?  We discover certain key aspects:

·         Characterized by self-forgetfulness , Other-Oriented

She had had a very unique and overwhelming spiritual experience.  The announcement of having been chosen to be the Mother of God was unexpected and troubling, to say the least.  And she was also told that her cousin, Elizabeth, was expecting!  Even though she was living her own experience, she embarks on a missionary journey, rushing from Galilee to Judea to be with her cousin. 

In spite of what is happening in HER life, Mary focuses on her cousin Elizabeth and her needs!  She shows a stunning generosity.  Today’s society centers on taking good care of ourselves!  We are called not to become so self-absorbed.  The edicts of self-fulfillment.  To be self-assertive regarding our own need.  Today, the psychology of self-fulfillment becomes the basis for holiness!

Missionary spirituality asks of us a profound and generous self-forgetfulness.  If we are to find God, we are first to see God in others and in their needs.  Everything we need will be given to us if we seek first God’s Reign.  If we lose our life for others, we will gain it.  If we seek to gain our life, we will lose it.  This is the dynamics of life and death in the Paschal Mystery.         Our prayer is more about others and their needs, than about our own.

As we read the Scriptures and follow in Mary’s footsteps, we see this same attitude of “Other-Centeredness” displayed at the Wedding Feast of Cana (Jn 2).  While the guests were too busy enjoying the good food and abundant wine at the party, the ever-attentive Mary was concerned that the wine was going too quickly and would soon run out.  What an embarrassing moment that would be for the newly weds!  She would insist that her Son do something about the situation, even in the face of His initial hesitation.

This attitude of Mary, this other-centeredness contains a lesson for religious life today.  We can apply its lessons when reflecting on our Congregational Charism.  If we try to hold on to it and preserve it in some kind of Pandora’s Box, under lock and key, so as not to lose it, we will only succeed in watching it die!  If we are to be re-birthed and see the charism take root and flourish again in new ways and in new cultures and circumstances, we must be willing to take the risk of giving it away!  We must share it with the lay people, we must find our specific contribution to the building of the Reign of God in our Church.  It is giving it away, that it will be multiplied, as Jesus reminds us in the Parable of the Talents!

We are not in community to form a “mutual admiration society.”  We are in it for others.  We are communities in mission and for mission.  We do not seek gain nor fame, but are about building God’s Reign!

·         A spirituality with serviceat its core

The heart of apostolic spirituality is service … the ministry we render.  We don’t withdraw from ministry to see the spiritual.  We do not seek to balance the two: they are one.  What we do for others we do both for and to the Lord.  Why can we not see our work, our ministry, as the very core, the substance, of our prayer? If our ministry is the way in which we lay down our lives for others – which is, Jesus tells us, the greatest love – then how can our ministry not be the very core of our prayer?  We need to become contemplatives-in-action, as a possible way of praying for a pilgrim of compassion.  The world, human reality, people are seen as a Temple, pregnant with God’s presence!

·         And a profound sense of urgency that brings Christ to those who need him

Mary went “in haste.”  There is an urgency here.  She sets off in haste, with an urgency to be there!  Apostolic spirituality implies a passion for mission, a zeal to be about God’s business.  An urgency for the Reign of God “eats us up.”  In the expression of Joan Chittister, it is like a “fire burning in our bellies.”  We shouldn’t fret about tomorrow, spend so much time worrying about the future, whether there will be one or not, whether our communities will survive, whether our remaining institutions will weather the test of time.  An apostle is concerned about today!  As someone once said: Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is mystery.  Today is a gift. That’s why it is called “present.”  This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice!Concentrate on today and pour yourselves into it with zest.  Ministry must be a fire in our heart that seeks to spread fire on earth.  Just as we cannot accept the Gospel with complacency, so we cannot serve it in a complacent way.  We must have a spirituality that is alive, driving us and consuming us.  “Woe to us if we do not evangelize!” Woe to us if we drag our feet about communicating God’s Redemptive Love to those who are thirsting for it and have not yet experienced it!

·         Bringing Christ to the Needy

In visiting her cousin Elizabeth, Mary takes her Son, whom she is carrying in her womb, into the domestic terrain, into the family and home, into the rhythm of normal daily routine, into the concreteness of family life with its joys and sufferings, anxieties and all those little things which make life meaningful. 

Like Mary we are to bring the Lord with us wherever we go, to bring him to light.  We also realize that we will find him already present wherever we go.  God is already there.  We are to make the Lord manifest, present, and visible through ministry.  Apostolic spirituality is always incarnational.  We bring our God and find our God, alive and active, wherever we go.  And we are open to receive.  We are likewise transformed and called to conversion by the Christ we discover wherever we go.  Apostolic spirituality will focus on the presence of the Lord in ourselves, in our ministry, and in those to whom we minister.  We will find the Lord marvelously incarnate in the ministry itself (“I will be with you always, everywhere!”).  Contemplation-in-action will heighten our awareness of that presence! “Give us eyes to see and ears to hear!”  becomes our daily petition.  If the Lord lives in us and if the Lord comes to us in those whom we serve, then our spirituality can exist in the noise of the world as well as in the quiet of our hearts.

·         A spirituality built on faith sharing

Mary and Elizabeth: a wonderful example of faith sharing!  They proclaim to each other the working of God in their lives.  Faith sharing is a key element of apostolic spirituality.  The revelation of God goes on in each of our lives.  Our human history becomes salvation history.  God does great things in each of us.  Faith sharing is a meeting of believers in which each articulates the work of God in us.  Each life becomes a book of revelation.  A deepened awareness of God in each person flows from this faith sharing: praise, thanksgiving, adoration, contrition, and petition … We learn to live reflective lives in God’s presence and to hear the Lord speak to us from the lives of others.  In community and with others, we walk as the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  We share our stories and reflect on our experiences in the light of the Word of God in order to discover the living Word trying to break forth in the bread of our lives that we share and the common cup of suffering and blessing that we drink. 

We are, like Mary, “pregnant with the Word of God” which we share with others.  But we are also aware that wherever we tred, we stand on sacred ground which is also pregnant with God’s presence.  We walk humbly and with respect.

·         Bursting with joy

The Visitation is one of the Joyful Mysteries.  The story bursts with joy.  The baby leaps in Elizabeth’s womb.  The words of Isaiah can justly be applied to Mary as she hurried across the mountains to Elizabeth’s house:

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good tidings, announcing peace, bearing good tidings, announcing salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ “  (Isaiah 52:7)

Our apostolic spirituality must be characterized by joy.  As Teresa of Avila prayed God to spare us from “long-faced saints.”  The world is a gloomy enough place without people who supposedly live by faith and hope adding to the somberness.  A sense of joy and humor is the clearest sign of the perspective on life that faith should afford us.

We are called to be missionaries of hope.  As we venture into the pain and woundedness of this world, and journey into the lives of the poor and suffering, we are there to share and to be a presence of Hope.  As compassionate pilgrims we need to be nourished and strengthened in our own hope by prayer and the Eucharist and by “remembering” that cloud of witnesses who were faithful and who have reached the goal.  We are “bearers of Good News”, bringing “sight to the blind, freeing prisoners, and proclaiming a year of jubilee.” 

The dialogue of these two holy women, is preserved in prayer.  There is a mutual outpouring of faith and love, an explosion of joy and peace, and a sharing of the goodness of God in their lives and the thrill of pure human excitement.

Her journey across the mountains, carrying the Word incarnate in her, becomes a parable of the journey of faith.  Her Magnificat a great song of pilgrimage!

Conclusion

It was not always easy to live her mission.  It was always smooth sailing.  Indeed the Prophecy of Simeon(Lk 2:33-35) surely often resounded in her mind and heart as she journey, following her Son in silence and in fidelity.

·         The misunderstanding of Joseph and of the townspeople when she became pregnant.

·         The concern of not finding a place where she could have her Child.

·         The flight into Egypt because the authorities were searching out her little Son to kill him.

·         The strange words Jesus said to her when she and Joseph had found Him in the temple after three days of heart-wrenching anguish and anxiety.

·         The sorrow she felt as the crowds Jesus had such compassion for began to turn on Him and cry out for His death.

·         As she stood at the foot of the Cross watching her son in His agony.

·         And holding the life-less body of her crucified Son in her arms after He was lowered from the Cross, contemplating so much suffering and cruelty in an attempt to decipher its mystery.

But Mary drank from the Cup of Suffering and in her attitude of contemplation before the mystery, drank it all in with trust and courage.  She, like the Lamb of Revelation is on foot.  She is the woman standing at the foot of the Cross.  She is not overwhelmed by it all.  God surely knows what He is doing!

            She walks along side of us as a compassionate pilgrim and instrument of God’s Redemptive Love.  She is our inspiration and our special intercessor before her Son.

These are some of the elements that comprise an apostolic spirituality, or a spirituality for mission.They must be lived out and infleshed in the different Congregational charisms.  To live such a spirituality calls for the breaking off from all that which impedes following Christ more closely, living in communion with Jesus and penetrating into His mystery.  It asks of us that total availability of Elisha who, when called, sacrificed his oxen (his livelihood) and burnt his tools for firewood (cf. I Kings 19:15-21).  We put our lives at the total disposition of the service of God’s Reign and of experimenting and witnessing to the fraternity of the disciples.

We too, inspired by her example wish to say daily our:

·         Eccomi!   Here I am!

·         Fiat!   Be it done unto me!

·         Magnificat!  And sing our praises to the Lord!

Mary can help us to cultivate an apostolic, missionary spirituality.  We pray that she might spark the fire for mission in each of us in order to be alive with passion for the Reign of God.  May she guide us as we establish our priorities and urgencies in our lives and help us to focus not on ourselves but on mission.

And, finally, may Mary lead us to those places where we are most needed in today’s society, to the needy whose cries are calling to us and who await with expectation the Word of hope that we carry within us, as Missionaries of the Precious Blood, that Blood “which speaks of the greatest joy of all: that of knowing that we are loved by God.”

Mary, Our Lady of the Precious Blood, inspire and guide us on our journey as living Chalices of Christ’s redemptive love.

Barry Fischer, C.PP.S.

The Visitation

Mary, you went hurriedly over hillsides,

many of them, to be with aunt Elizabeth,

whose womb also swelled with surprise

You, the woman of youth and vigor,

weary from the long road’s rigors,

wondering still about the mystery within

Elizabeth, wrinkled and wise,

weary from the child kicking inside,

(already a hint of wildness in him)

The two of you, meeting at the door,

weeping and laughing at the same time,

each one gasping at the other’s fertility

And leaping between and among you,

those two frisky fetuses, yet to be born,

the prophet and the One to be proclaimed

Did they feel the love of your hospitality?

Did they swim and sway with your voice?

Did they listen with tiny, eager ears to all

that passed between the two of you

in the days and weeks that swiftly passed,

growing and feeding on your rich love?

I don’t know which I’d have wanted more,

to be in one of those glorious filled wombs

or in the house of that woman-blessed place

--Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary, p. 128

Living the Eucharist

Introduction

The Eucharist is the central celebration of our faith.  It is a ritual prayer that we celebrate each day in a great variety of situations: on weekdays, on feast days, for weddings, for baptisms, for funerals, etc.  But since it is a daily celebration, it can like anything else which is done on a regular basis, could become routine, or even be felt as a burden or something we carry out without reflections, almost like robots, or wind-up priests and nuns going mechanically through the motions!

            I would like to begin this reflection recalling the words pronounced by the Bishop on the day of priestly ordination, as he presents the chalice with the wine and the patent with the bread to the newly ordained.  The Bishop says:

“Receive the offerings of the People of God for the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Be mindful of that which you do,

imitate that which you celebrate,

conform your life

to the mystery of the Cross of Christ, the Lord.”

            That is, the priest is to become that which he celebrates!  Each baptized person forms part of the priestly people and is called to do the same: to become that which we celebrate.  That is to say, our life must be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, which moves us continually to be conformed to Christ, the eternal High Priest.  Each time, in the Eucharistic celebration, we hear that pressing invitation of Jesus:  “Do this in memory of me!”We are called to nothing less than to be immolated with Him, to offer ourselves as a victim of expiation for the sins of the world.  This is to enter into the sacrifice of Christ.

            Much time was given in the speeches of many Bishops at the Synod on the Eucharist (October, 2005) in which I participated as a Synod Father, on what is called arscelebrandi, that is, the art of celebrating.  “The arscelebrandi is not to be understood as inviting someone to the a kind of theatrical performance, to a spectacle to be observed, but rather speaks of an interior experience which is acceptable and evident to the faithful participating in the Mass.  It is important that the Eucharistic celebration be not merely an exterior ars, a spectacle – we aren’t actors! – but rather the expression of the journey of our hearts, which also attracts their hearts.  In this way, liturgy becomes beautiful, it becomes the communion of all those present with the Lord.”

To live the Eucharist= to become that which we celebrate

This becomes for us the greatest challenge we face daily on our journey towards holiness and in the living of the mission entrusted to us as peoples of the Blood of Christ.

Jesus was strongly critical of empty ritualism, that is, of celebrations void of any relationship with life, of beautiful festive celebrations which were not reflected in the lives of the celebrants. “I do not want your sacrifices, but rather works of love and of justice”! was the injunction which the Lord hurled upon the Pharisees.          

Let us take a closer look at the fundamental aspects of “becoming that which we celebrate”.

• To be bread that is broken.  “This is my body offered in sacrifice for you”.

When I hear these words I think of St. Ignatius of Antioch, who when on his way to Rome in chains awaiting his execution, wrote to the Christians of Rome who were trying to convince Traijan the Emperor not to carry out the execution.  Ignatius writes: “I wish to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts in order to become an instrument of Christ and bread of life for all.”        

With a very deep love for Jesus Christ, to the point of desiring to be immolated for Him, all is vain.  Christ asked Peter:  “Do you love me more than they?”  Then, feed my sheep!  Herein lies the presidency of Peter: in the service of charity.  The altar is ready.  The victim as well.  Let us make of our very lives an offering (a sacrifice) to the Lord for the people we serve.

A priestly people called to a Life of Service

Often we have the image of the Church of the chasuble, of the book, of elegant liturgies, but we often lack the image of the Church of the towel, the Church which washes feet, the Church called to serve!

On the day of ordination many of us received beautiful stoles or vestments, golden chalices, true works of art.  Did anyone give us a wash basin and a towel?  Perhaps this would be a more adequate gift to remind us daily of what “priesthood” is all about, whether we speak of ordained priesthood or the priesthood of the People of God.

            In John’s Gospel which does not relate the institution of the Eucharist as such, has in its place, the story of the Washing of the Feet which as an explanation of what Eucharist is all about.  St. John writes: “And during supper Jesus…took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him…I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:2-5.15)  And He is very clear with Peter when he states that if he wishes to be in communion with Him, then He must let his feet be washed.   And in this same light we might meditate on the Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2, which speaks of being in one mind with Jesus Christ “who humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (v. 5-12).

            After celebrating the Eucharist, when we are back in our homes, do we open our lives to the people and to one another?  Do we “break the bread of our lives”?  Are we willing to break the bread of our lives for others even when the “other” comes knocking at our door at the most inconvenient time?  When the “other” disturbs our prayer, or our solitude, or interrupts us when we are busy about an important project? 

            We must ask ourselves if we are willing to break the bread of our lives with our sisters and brothers in community each day.  Do we welcome them to the table of our lives, even as we might criticize those who exclude others from the Eucharistic Table in the temple?

            Our daily task is not simply to sit together at table in community under the same roof, but to be willing to be a living sacrifice, a burnt offering, for our sisters and brothers as we break the bread of our lives together.

                 

(The story of my visit to the home of José and María in Chile):  It wasn’t easy.  I felt bad about eating the little food they had and for taking their bed from them that night!  I lie awake asking myself “why I was doing this?  What did it all mean?  Was it worth it? Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus I had many questions and didn’t know the answers.  Only when we said our farewells and they thanked me for sharing their hospitality with them because now they knew that God loved them, did I realize that we had celebrated Eucharist and that Christ was recognized in the breaking of bread!)

(The story of our seminarians in Rome befriending the street people who roam the piazzas of the city and are seen sitting on the Church steps!  When one was missing, the seminarian visited him in the hospital.  Later he saw him on the step and sat and spoke with him, promising to bring him some clothes.  But the man said, the clothes didn’t matter.  What mattered was that you sit and chat with me!)

Who do we take time to break bread with?  With our sisters and brothers in community?  With the poor and neglected?

• To be blood shed.  “This is the chalice of my blood…shed for you and for all!”

            Another patristic text can serve as a starting point for reflecting on this aspect of blood shed.  St. Ciprian of Carthagena writes inLettere, 63, 7 (CSEL 3, 705-706)  (see p. 35 del “Ogni giorno sulle orme del Sangue di Cristo” di a cura di Tullio Veglianti, CPPS)

                      

“…One also can speak of the winepress:  just as one cannot drink wine without first crushing and squeezing the bunches of grapes,neither can we drink the blood of Christ, if first He had not been trampled upon and crushed and had not first drunk of the chalice, which He would offer to the faithful.”

            Which is the chalice which we offer in the Eucharist? Let us listen to the words of the II Vatican Council:  “The joys and the hopes, the sadness and the anguish of men and women of today, of the poor and above all of those who suffer, are also the joys and the hopes, the sadness and the anguish of the disciples of Christ, for all that is genuinely human has an echo in our heart” (Gaudium et Spes, # 1).

            When the priest at the altar prepares the chalice for the Eucharistic sacrifice, he mixes water and wine while saying:  “By the mystery of this water and wine may we remember how the divinity of Christ has been mixed with our humanity, so that our humanity might be absorbed in His divinity.”

            We, the priestly People of God, fill the chalice on the altar with the blood of Abel which we have gathered on our journey of compassion and solidarity into the suffering heart of humanity.  As we journey we open our hearts and invite others to rest there and to unload their burdens on us, as Christ invites us to rest in His open heart.  At the Eucharistic Table we then empty our hearts into the Chalice and we offer:

The Cup of suffering:

When we look reverently in the Eucharistic Chalice we see our lives as a weaving of joys and sorrows, successes and failures, victories and defeats, virtue and sin.The Eucharist Cup unites the signs of life, of suffering and of injustice with the Passion of Christ.The face of Christ who suffers and is crucified assumes the characteristics of various persons:  the poor who populate our urban sprawling urban centers, the unemployed, the immigrants, street children, children  with no possibility of education, young people without work or perspectives, and without guides, women who are underpaid or exploited, abandoned elderly, prisoners, the sick and especially those suffering with AIDS, women and children exploited in sex trafficking, etc.

            We are engaged in an ongoing struggle against the forces which diminish or threaten Life, whether it be before birth (abortion) during, or at the end of life (euthanasia).  We are committed to defending the human rights of all peoples.The Blood of Life invites us to embrace and to promote a “consistent life ethic” which promotes and defends life always and wherever it be threatened.

            It isthe suffering of the poor, of the unemployed, of the immigrants, of the street children, of the youth who wander about without a clear direction to their lives, the women who are sometimes poorly paid and exploited, the elderly often forgotten and abandoned to their fate, the prisoners, to the sick, to those suffering from AIDS,  the women and children victims of sex trafficking and exploitation, etc., etc.

            The chalice on the altar gathers in all the brokenness and wounds of our world.  It also wishes to contain our own suffering, in community, in the Church, in society.  It is a chalice which we are invited to drink as Jesus did in the Garden of Olives the night before He died.  It is the chalice which Jesus offers his disciples when they are seeking the first places in His Reign! (cfr. Mark 10:38-39)

            The Catechism of the Catholic Church, when speaking of the Eucharist in #1397, reminds us that The Eucharist commits us to the poor.“To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren:

“You have tasted the Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize your brother/sister,… You dishonor this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal….God freed you from all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more merciful.”(from a homily of St. John Chrysostomus)

            We also recall the exhortation of Paul to the Community of Corinth which is recorded in his First Letter to the Corinthians 11:27-29:

“Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

             In this text he reminds all that we are responsible for “the body.  If we ignore the body, we are receiving communion unworthily.

The Cup of Hope

As we journey into the lives and hearts of the people with whom we walk in ministry, we not only see suffering, but we also discover signs of life and the seeds of God’s presence in history.  They are the signs of Resurrection and new life sprouting among us.  As compassionate pilgrims we are also called to discover the face of the Risen Lord.  It is important to celebrate those signs of hope in the midst of the suffering and difficulties of our lives.  Love is stronger than hate.  Life is stronger than death.  Sin can be conquered and the powers of evil will not prevail.  We discover this truth in the lives of many people whom we know who are living faithfully their baptismal commitment, who are faithful to their vows, who put people before programs, who live lives of generous self-donation, who are more interested in serving than in being served.  We discover signs of new life and of God’s Reign in the solidarity of many people who share the lives of the poor and who make their cause their own.  We see God’s presence in the courageous witness of Christians who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations in order to witness to the Gospel.  We also see His presence in those who give not only their economic resources, but also who invest their time and their talents to promote the life and the dignity of the poor and oppressed.  

            It is important to celebrate those moments of hope, those small victories in the ongoing struggle against injustice and evil in its many forms.  We need to offer in the Eucharistic Cup that problem which has been resolved, a need which has been taken care of, a reconciliation in community, a sick person who has recovered her health or her hope in life.  (The story of the soup kitchen in Chile….each contributing their small portion made it possible to feed 40 small children for two years.  Thus we affirm that God’s Reign is breaking through in the midst of our broken and wounded world, that a new creation is being born through the small and apparently insignificant gestures and efforts of the daily lives of millions of people of good will.  It is to be united with Christ in the Garden of Olives who although struggling with His impending death, was able to say His “yes” to God and in that “yes” gave birth to a new world order.

            Incelebrating all these small victories of everyday life, we affirm that history is being built and that creation continues in the actions and commitments of everyday, even those small and seemingly insignificant ones.  We celebrate these small stones which are essential for building the Reign of God.  It was this profound conviction which helped Jesus to overcome the moment of temptation in the Garden.  He could say “yes” to that moment and thus his agony and death became the most creative and fruitful acts of all times!

            These signs of life and death are mixed together in the Chalice that we offer the Lord in the Eucharist.  It is both the Cup of Suffering and the Cup of Hope.We must lift up the Cup of our hands and recognize the joys hidden in our sorrows.

            This is the Cup of Suffering and of Hope that we offer in the Eucharist.  In that Cup our human blood with all its reality will be mixed and converted into Christ’s Precious Blood.  It becomes our Blessing Cup.

Our “Amen”

When we say our "Amen" at the moment of receiving Communion, we are saying clearly that “yes” we wish to participate in the same dynamic of the life of Jesus Christ.  As I have tried to indicate, the Eucharist is much more than a devotional practice in which I enter into intimacy with “my” God.  It is rather a deep moment of community in which our minds and our hearts are stretched so as to see and to imagine “that beautiful order of things in the Blood of Christ!”  We join our lives together in Christ in order to commit ourselves to giving our lives in order to transform that vision into reality.  St. Augustine also said when speaking of the Eucharist, that “we are to be that which we receive!”  We receive the Body and Blood of Christ as food for our response to the call to become bread and wine for others.

            “Do this in memory of Christ” is not the mechanical repetition of a ritual gesture; rather it is letting ourselves be molded in order to love as He loves and thanks to Him, “even to death.”   We must take life to Christ and Christ to life.  The Eucharist emerges us deeply into history in order to come “story of salvation.”  There is no communion without mission.   The liturgy concludes with the invitation to begin another celebration, that in which all of life is involved.

Do this in memory of me …

           

Every Eucharist is a recalling of that love.  It is an immersion in the love of God, in the love which binds together the Blessed Trinity.

            There can be no fracture between Eucharist and life.  St. John Chrysostomus (in his homily on alms) says “It is fitting to honor this day spiritually, not with banquets, with copious libations, with drunkenness, with dances, but with alms giving to the poorest among the brothers.”

            As a Church which has at its core the Eucharist as the privileged moment for celebrating our faith and living the spirituality of the Blood of Christ, we are called tolive the Eucharist, that is, to be Eucharistic persons and communities: welcoming and inclusive communities, communities of reconciliation and of hope.  We are a community which breaks its body and sheds its blood each day with Christ in generous service which knows no limits, in order to serve the People of God and to build the Reign of God.  To live the Eucharist, that is, becoming that which we celebrate, is really our path to holiness!

Living in Covenant Relationship

  Introduction

We have reflected on numerous occasions over the course of the past three weeks on the central theme of “covenant” in living a spirituality of the Precious Blood.  We reflected on the themes of covenant, cross and reconciliation as a “spirituality”, that is, as a way of following Jesus.  It is an incarnated, down-to-earth spirituality, one which gives direction to our life, our life’s choices, and which gives an orientation to our ministry and pastoral activities. 

How do we define “covenant”

There is no concept in the Bible richer and more fundamental than covenant.  One author said decades ago, “it is the glue that holds biblical faith together.”  The original word berith has been translated in different ways.  Some translated it as testamentand was used to distinguish the sacred writings of the two eras, those of the Old and of the New Testament.  Others used the world word contract is used to describe the relationship between two parties.  But this word has too much of a legal tone to describe the divine-human relationship. Perhaps the word, which more closely captures what “covenant”, is all about is the word bonding.  The latter term captures both the bilateralism of the covenant and the affective unity, which arises from such a covenant relationship.  It seems to me important to capture both these aspects when speaking of covenant, for the God of the Hebrews was one who revealed himself to be personal, concerned, and engaged.  His initiative in making an insignificant, nondescript people his very own is what we term a covenant.

The Sinai Covenant: An Affective Bond (a bonding of the heart)

As we try to capture the biblical sense of covenant we must turn our attention to chapters 19-24 of the Book of Exodus.  These chapters deal with the Sinai covenant, which stands at the heart of Hebrew faith.  It was in light of their experience at Sinai that the Hebrews looked back upon their earlier history.  The history of the Hebrew people is meaningless without covenant.  This “bond” was the prism through which the history of the “elect of God” was viewed.

What happened at Sinai?  The event follows the escape of the Israelites from Egypt and their passage through the Red Sea. Chapters 19-24 of Exodus narrate for us how the people experienced God as both liberator and covenant partner.  We can speak of the Exodus-Sinai experience as forming a type of unity, for the biblical narrative presents a God who was both deliverer and partner, the Yahweh of the Exodus and of Sinai.  Let us read the most important verses of this narrative, as found in Exodus 24: 3-8:

When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the Lord, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has told us.”  Moses then wrote down all the words of the Lord and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.  Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord, Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowl; the other half he splashed on the altar.  Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered,  “All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do.”  Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his."

Whatever the Sinai experience historically entailed, it was for Israel an organizing moment.  This group of no-people was constituted as “God’s special people”.  And they were very conscious of the fact that what constituted them as a people was not ethnicity or blood ties but rather they realized that they had been called together and favored by Yahweh, the God of the covenant. This disorderly band of peoples was now “the elect,” “sacred,” “my people.”  And in some way the wide chasm between a God of mystery and otherness and a very ordinary people had been bridged.

It is significant to point out that this covenant was sealed in the blood of the sacrifices.  Sacrifice is about coming into communion with God.  The blood signifies the seriousness of that communication, and reminds us that communion with God touches the very life that courses through us.  It is the blood of the sacrificial victim spilt on the altar (representing God) and sprinkled on the people, which ratifies the covenant.  It is the symbolic element, which bonds God and the people, sealing their relationship.

Israelite prayer also evolved around the story of the Exodus and of the Sinai Covenant.  This saving event was ritualized as recounted in Exodus 12: 24-27.  The mysterious deliverance from the sword of the angel of death and their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea are commemorated each year in the celebration of the Passover.  Then it was at the mountain of Sinai that events occurred that would transform this motley group into a people with an identity and a purpose: the covenant.

To summarize then: We have before us then a covenant relationship, initiated by God but one which is freely entered into on the basis of love.  It is a “two-way street,” with affective bonds binding each side.  We are called to live “bonded to God”.  But this bond also calls us to “bond to one another in community.”

The covenant theme permeates all of Scriptures and is a constant in the Old Testament.  The entire salvation history should be read in the light of the covenant:  of God’s call to relationship and our human response to the faithful love of God.  There are many ups and downs throughout the history of salvation and God raised up prophets from time to time to call people back to the covenant relationship from which they had strayed.

The New Covenant in Jesus’ Blood

The theme of the covenant carries over into the New Testament.  In fact we refer to the “new covenant.”  In contrast to the old Sinai covenant, which failed because Israel did not respond to God’s love, the new covenant will be successful.  It will be successful because it will be God and God alone who will put into the hearts of the people the power to respond in love.  This “grace” comes to us along with forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus who died for love of us.  It is the death-resurrection of Christ that opens the era of the new covenant, marked by the presence of the Spirit, and serves as the prism through which the entire ministry of Jesus is viewed.

It is in the setting of the Last Supper that the new covenant emerges with the greatest clarity, “He did the same with the cup after eating, saying as he did so: ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood, which will be shed for you” (Luke 22:20).  As in Exodus, sacrifice accompanied the covenant (Ex 24:5).  The meal setting of the Eucharist evokes the reference to eating and drinking after the Sinai covenant.   The words of Jesus over the cup are a distinct echo of Moses’ words at the conclusion of the covenant ritual (Ex 24:8).  Yet Jesus’ qualifying “my” is important.  It is the new covenant that is inaugurated, the one spoken of by Jeremiah (31:31-34) which will be brought about by Christ’s death-resurrection, with the consequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit written on our hearts.  The sacrificial death is not that of animal victims but of God’s own son, who hands himself over in love.  Christ is now the new paschal lamb by the shedding of whose blood we are delivered from the Egypt of sinful bondage and become party to a new covenant of the Spirit written on the heart.

As is the case with the Sinai covenant, the Eucharist is to be perpetuated.  The rubric states it simply: “Do this in my memory” (anamnesis).  Each celebration of the Eucharist is a living link with that saving event, resulting in our direct participation in the paschal mystery, which is thus made new and brought to life in every age and time.

Significance of the covenant theme for today

One of the principle challenges facing us today is “connecting” our spirituality with everyday life in community and in ministry.

Covenant speaks strongly to the society in which we live.  It speaks to the isolation of individualism so rampant in our culture.  It speaks to the loneliness, anguish, and loss of self-esteem that comes from being excluded in our society, whether on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ethnic origin or whatever.  It speaks to the breakdown in communication between husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, hierarchy and layperson.  It speaks to the hunger to belong, to be noticed and appreciated, to be listened to and to be cared for.  It bespeaks a vision of a genuinely inclusive human community, a reconciliation of what has been divided and fragmented in our lives.

In response to the cries of blood which we hear in today’s world, we as persons marked by the Blood of Christ, call upon the resources of the Precious Blood in giving our response.  The Blood of the Covenant is particularly significant here.

Implications of living as “men of the new covenant”

This brief summary of biblical covenant is important as a background for understanding our own commitment to live as a covenant people.  I have tried to indicate some of the important aspects of the covenant relationship: the initiative of God and our free response, the consequent affective bonding with God and with one another, and the need to renew the covenant in ritual. 

Now we turn our attention to some of the practical implications of being a people of the covenant. All baptized peoples participate in the covenant and form part of God’s people.  However,  we are called to especially witness to the covenant as persons who live under the banner of the Blood of Christ, that Blood which sealed the new and eternal covenant.  We are called to live the covenant and to witness to the covenant relationship with our everyday lives and in our ministries. How might we witness to the covenant in our everyday lives?

The first aspect that I would like to reflect on is that of bonding.  We’ve already seen that this is a good way of describing the basic relationship brought about by the covenant.  By the free initiative of God, we are invited to enter into a relationship with God in covenant.  Through our free response, God is bonded to us and we to God (“I will be your God and you will be my people.”).  So when we reflect on practical implications of living the covenant, we must first address issues involving the bonding which necessarily takes place.  And here we must talk about a double process:  bonding with God and bonding with one another!

Bonding with God

Through the covenant we are a people who “belong” to God.  We are bonded to God in a love relationship.  Our response to God’s invitation is our “yes” to live according to God’s law.  In its origins, law was anything but a burden.  It was a gift to Israel and it was the centerpiece of the covenant relationship.  In the New Testament, Christ substitutes for the law.  It is not conformity with a set of laws that effect sanctity but rather faith in Christ, who evokes a faith-filled response.  At the last Supper Jesus enjoined his disciples to be faithful to him, to be truly His friends, by “keeping his command” to love one another! We can see here echoes of the covenant commitment of the Old Testament covenant.

• For the children of the new covenant, to know God is to know Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:5-10).  Thus we are called to know Christ, to grow in our knowledge of Him and love of Him.  Our prayer must be Christ-centered.  Our spirituality must drink deep of the gospel.  If to know Jesus is to know God, then  our principal source of knowledge has to be the word of God.  We are called to meditate the word of God, prayerfully reading the gospels, discerning the teaching and comportment of Jesus.  It is in applying the evangelical teaching to our daily life that growth in the covenant relationship happens.

·         We must then ask ourselves about our personal relationship to God in prayer.  Is the word of God a living reality for us?  Just as a married couple is called to grow in union with one another through dialogue, so we are called to deepen and strengthen our covenant relationship with God through our daily dialogue in prayer and in the meditation of sacred scriptures.  To neglect these important aspects in our daily lives is to spell the doom of our bonding with God.  For a relationship in which dialogue is absent soon dries up and withers away.  A couple in love creatively looks for ways and opportunities to be with the loved one.  Do we search for opportunities and create the conditions that will permit that intimate dialogue with God?

• We have already treated prayer in a previous reflection and later on in this retreat we will reflect more about the Eucharist, the greatest and central prayer of the Christian community.  It is enough to emphasize here the importance of prayer and the Eucharist to deepen our relationship to God and to one another, to effect this kind of bonding which is implicit in the covenant relationship.  We do well to meditate frequently on the scripture passage of John 15:1-8, where our union with Christ is compared to the vine and the branches.  Indeed it is the blood that runs through our veins, that is in communion with the Blood of Christ.  It is this essential bond with Christ, the source of love, that sustains and gives us strength and which makes possible our bonding together with others.

One of the most beautiful pages written in the history of spirituality is written by St. Augustine when, after such a long search, let’s himself be found by the Lord:

“Late have I lovedyou,

O Beauty ever ancient, ever new,

late have I loved you!

You were within me, but I was outside,

and it was there that I searched for you.

In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things

which you created.

You were with me, but I was not with you.

Created things kept me from you;

yet if they had not been in you

theywould not have been at all.

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.

You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled by blindness.

You breathed your fragrance on me;

I drew in breath and now I pant for you.

I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.

You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

Give me, Lord, that which you ask of me

andthen ask of me whatever you like! ”

Just hearing these words seems to awaken in our hearts a yearning for the Loved One. That love which God first sowed in us, gives birth to a desire to be good, to be better persons, to finally become one day a true Christian, to become Jesus, leaving behind our senseless life.  Our deepest vocation is that of becoming one with the Lord, to join our name inseparably from Christ:  Barry-Jesus, Therese-Jesus, Paul-Jesus, Bridget-Jesus, etc.  It is nothing less than the desire for holiness which floods our heart thanks to the loving and attentive initiative of our God.

                       

Before reflecting in the following theme on bonding with one another, we need to examine this fundamental bond, that of God with us!  It is from this primary bonding with God that our call and capacity to bond with one another springs.  When asked by the Pharisees which is the greatest of all the commandments, Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength.”

Let us examine in prayer our relationship with God.  Is God my first love?  What idols creep into my life which try to replace this “first and primary love?”   How do I nurture this love-relationship with God and Christ?  Two handouts might help us in this reflection.

           

As possible prayer and reflection material this evening, I would like to share with you to prayers which I discovered during my thirty-day Ignatian Retreat a few years ago.  The first one is a prayer composed by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, a former Superior General of the Jesuits.  It is entitled, Being in Love.  I found it a very down-to-earth way of helping us to identify where our first love is. 

The second is a prayer by Blessed John Henry Newman and is entitled, One Alone.  I found it to be very useful for reflection and to help me discover where my true love lies.

None of us are guilty of out-and-out idolatry.  Many of us are guilty of allowing our decisions to be governed by many powers other than the one true God: desire for approval, addiction to work or other escapes from reality, greed for gain, need for control.  So powerful can these dictators become that we no longer recognize the voice of God, who speaks a different language than they do.  What might some of my “idols” be which distract me from the One True God and which demand my time and homage?

“Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! (Dt 6:4).  “Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God!” (Hos 14:2)

Barry Fischer, C.PP.S.