The Eucharist -- fast food or that which satisfies our deepest human hungers?

When I make my annual retreat each year, I simply get back to the basics.  I slow down.  I seek to encounter God in stillness, in solitude.  I get plenty of sleep, eat nutritious food, and pro-actively focus both on physical and spiritual exercises.

Very simply, I eat three meals a day.  They are not rushed.  I do not eat between meals.  The food is not fast, instant or junk food.  Rather,  the food is healthy and nutritious.

I say this describing the food at the retreat house because I must confess that too often I begin my day with some coffee and skip breakfast.  Often I don’t  seem  any worse for it.  But over the long haul, clearly it is not a healthy way to live.

If skipping breakfast is relatively easy, it is also easy to neglect spiritual food.  It’s too easy to skip daily prayer and the weekly celebration of the Eucharist.  We often don’t seem any worse for the wear and tear.  But over the long haul, we can get out of touch with our deepest spiritual hungers.

Far from being a pit stop for fast food and entertainment in the journey of life, the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ is the necessary sustenance for the spiritual growth of each member of the community and for the community itself.

As we reflect on the mystery of the Sunday Eucharist, we are reflecting on the central prayer of our faith tradition.  We are part of a tradition that is nearly 2000 years old.  The Sunday Eucharist is our participation in the paschal mystery of Christ Jesus.  The Sunday Eucharist satisfies the deepest hungers of the human heart.

I suggest our deepest spiritual hungers are for Jesus’ power to love and forgive his enemies rather than embarrass and crush them.  What we hunger for is Jesus’ power to be bighearted;  to love beyond his own family, and to love poor and rich alike; to live inside of charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, despite everything in life that militates against these virtues.

Left to our own will power and our own desires, we get too easily trapped in self-centeredness.  The truth of the life of all of us is that we are deeply flawed by sin.

The satisfaction of these deepest hungers comes from God and God’s love that is revealed to us in the mystery of the Eucharist.  The way we are wired is that for us to satisfy the deepest hunger of our human hearts, we need to be connected to the mystery of God’s love that is within us.  It is as a Eucharistic people, we are in to touch with the source of grace that enables us to be our best selves, the person we are called to be. 

As a Eucharistic community, we gather with an attitude of gratitude.  We gather to give, to give thanks to the Lord our God.  We give thanks because we have been fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord with a food that enables to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives.

With great joy, we have  recently celebrated two First Communion weekends in the parish.  The spiritual joy experienced in our First Communicants and in their families is so very precious.  The ritual of our First Communion celebrations are so inspiring.  It is a moment of joy for me as a priest to give First Communion to one of our younger parishioners.  In age appropriate ways, they celebrate the life giving presence of Jesus within them.  Thanks be to God.  

  

The challenge we have as a parish community is to sustain our Eucharistic faith and joy continuously throughout the year.  Even though our First Communicants won’t  be wearing their communion dresses and suits Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, nonetheless the God whose love for us is unending continues to offer to us the Bread of Life and the Cup of salvation always.

The thing of it is with spiritual hungers; we can be spiritually hungry without being in touch with our deep hunger.  As the great St. Augustine, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are hungry until they rest in thee.

As the congregation approaches the altar and receives communion, it is as if the Church is filling up with Christ.  We are not only in union with Christ, we are in communion with all those who receive him.  The Eucharist is a community affair, not simply Jesus and me.  We are not only in union with Christ; we are in  communion with all those who receive Christ.  This is the meaning of Church.  The Church is a people  of God who are in union with Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist.  We are also a people in communion with all those who receive Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is our bond of communion with Christ who cleanses us our sins and unites in marvelous communion with God and gives our dignity to be God’s beloved sons and daughters.  Further, the Eucharist binds us together with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  We are called to the Body of Christ – the bearers of hope and love to people who are sick in body and spirit.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gathers his disciples with the context of something very old – the Passover meal – to give them something very new  -- the Eucharist.  He creates for them a new covenant.  These disciples must carry on the work of Jesus.  They will be able to do his work through the empowerment of His presence.  The Eucharist has a social dimension.  It is always an encounter of the Church, the people of God, with the powerful presence of Jesus in the new covenant of His blood.  This is why the Eucharist is so central to the life of the Church.

The Mass is our greatest prayer; we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.  Yet it is what we do outside the Mass that also determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each Sunday.  By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ.  Go in peace glorifying the Lord  by our lives in all that we say and do this day and every day.