ELISHEBA BLOGLaura, Ivonne, and Rick
write about their lives in the Eucharist. |
ELISHEBA BLOGLaura, Ivonne, and Rick
write about their lives in the Eucharist. |
This gospel passage is heavy on my heart today.
Through this Gospel passage, our Lord speaks to us as He looks upon His Church in the world. I see so much fighting keeping us from loving one another, and the fighting keeps us from fully giving and receiving God’s mercy. Why is that? Have we, like the Pharisees of old, gotten so used to the institution’s ways that we forget what the institution is there for in the first place? We are all sinners. All who pursue a relationship with Christ are trying to overcome sinfulness. If we see our brother struggling, we are meant to reach out our hands to help, especially those most in need of our mercy, guidance, love, and compassion. Our call is to become faithful followers of Christ, as He taught us, with humility and fully aware of our need for repentance, love, and kindness.
We need awareness of our role in the life of the Church so that we may understand how our actions, words, and examples affect our brothers and sisters. Who is that we represent out in the world? If today I am a follower of Christ, it is all due to those Christ sent to help me when my life was immersed in darkness and without direction. Through their love and compassion towards me, I rediscovered once again the love and mercy of God… mercy that I had known so well during my childhood but had forgotten… and it is because of the myriad prayers poured out for me from those who loved me even when they did not know me. When I was able to see Christ in their faces, I was able to set my heart to follow Him, the true light in the darkness. I remember thinking, “I want that same relationship with God that they have.” Repentance and its acceptance are a means for us to start noticing God’s never-ending love toward us. This humility in repentance is the means to approach ever closer to Christ and His unending mercy. In the Eucharist, we receive without limits so that we may then share without limits. Christ is alive and present in the Eucharist so that we may reach Him intimately and certainly, both in the hidden reality and in the present of our relationships with one another, united through Communion. This is so beautiful… But I also remember what made me waver on the way back to Christ so long ago. What made that straight road crooked? It was the modern Pharisees whose actions confused me and kept sending me through mazes and dead-ends, keeping me from promptly finding my way back to relationship with Christ in His Church. I shudder when I consider that my actions in life may have led someone astray. Woe to us if we keep someone from finding Christ.
For all the times I have led someone away from Christ, I lay at the feet of our Lord in repentance and asking for forgiveness. I wish for all of us to grow in this awareness and commit to loving one another, for we are, in many ways, our brother’s keeper.
What have we done, indeed… We are responsible for those who look up to us and follow our example. May we take this responsibility seriously and learn to live encouraging lives so that as we live the Gospel, we may shine Christ’s light on those who live in darkness and need us.
Let us pray: Beloved Eucharistic Lord, you are counting on us to help shepherd Your flock. May we all love You with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and our brothers as we love ourselves. Amen.
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We see time and time again that Christ calls all peoples to Himself, especially those who are ill and need healing. We read and hear that our Lord tends to the pain of the suffering with His very own hands. Jesus does not question the pain but instead acknowledges the suffering. Moved by His compassionate heart, He gave back sight to the blind, washed clean the lepers, gave back hearing to the deaf, restored the paralyzed, and forgave the repentant sinners. Jesus, our Lord, is the Heavenly Physician, and the Church He left for us is meant to be a hospital. The Church is intended to offer healing, if somewhat different from the miracles we hear in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Pope Francis goes further to say that our Church is a field hospital out into the world. He said the early Church is depicted as “a field hospital that takes in the weakest people: the infirm.” And that “The sick hold a privileged role in the Church and in the priestly heart of all the faithful. They are not to be cast aside. On the contrary, they are to be cared for, to be looked after. They are the objects of Christian concern.” And I long for the day that we are all united with Christ in our love and concern for those among us who are ill, infirm, lonely, sad, depressed, dying, or living in desolation and poverty. Yet the reality we see is much different from this. People today want our Church to be an exclusive club, closed to those most in need of Christ’s love, mercy, and healing. We forget what it is to be as Christ. Did He not tend to those most in need? In the sacrifice of the Eucharist, I see Christ’s heart hurting for us, calling us to love as He did, to care as He did. The Church is not a club but a place of healing. I am often privy to conversations where one criticizes another or complains that someone is not doing the right things, and I am amazed at how easy it is for us to pass judgment upon our brother. Often, I find those judgments so unfair, for we do not know the whole story or situation. We are not omniscient. Only God knows the entire story, and judgment is reserved for Him.
Let me share a story I read long ago.
Fighting against sin is a life-long endeavor that will require all our strength.
As with the monk, we need our Most Blessed Mother to pray for us. That is why we implore Mother Mary to “pray for us now and at the time of our death” that we may resist the temptation to abandon hope. We do not want to stop the struggle against sin, especially at the last moment. The life-long fight against sin worked on the monk the same way a river polishes a river stone. Eventually, the friction rounds us up. In the struggle, the monk found fidelity, hope, and faith. He never gave up, and God never gave up on him. For his life’s work fighting against sin, he was recompensed with a host of angels escorting him up to Heaven. Can you imagine this glorious day in the House of our Lord?
The monastery was a field hospital for the monk. We thank God for the Elder who gave his time, love, and compassion. He helped raise a saint. But what about the pilgrims of the story? Don’t they sound a little bit like us today? Let us learn this lesson of love and compassion and try to do better than the pilgrims, for the same way we have our stories of struggle, so do our brothers and sisters. Let us keep an open mind and lend a hand to those struggling and fighting against sin. Let us always remember we are all in this fight.
Let us pray: “Dear God, please give me strength when I am weak, love when I feel forsaken, courage when I am afraid, wisdom when I feel foolish, comfort when I am alone, hope when I feel rejected, and peace when I am in turmoil. Amen.” (Unknown Author)
In these turbulent times that we live in, I often feel called to pray for the ones who are alone. So many of our brothers and sisters are ill, elderly, lonely, and separated from their loved ones, and it breaks my heart. Yet, this time is an opportunity for all of us to help carry each other’s burdens in physical action and mindful prayer.
May we always pray for and support one another, for where one might fail, two might succeed by helping each other. It is in our fellowship that we express our unity. Those of us who follow the way of the cross, are aware of the weight. We may be encouraged when we find someone walking with us to lighten the burden, in this we become of one mind and heart. If you ever had the chance to hear a heart synchronized with yours, then you know how joyful it is to come together like that… I visualize us as a rowing team, a group united in fellowship, a choreography of movement, working together as a singular effort to the urging of a guiding voice. This sounds to me like the Christian life for those of us out in the world, as it is in the sharing of a purpose and in the merging of our actions that we come together in Christ. Sharing this heavenly purpose makes us part of something greater than our single selves and closer to what we are called to be: the body of Christ. It is like the image of Moses and Levi from the Book of Exodus, with the Hebrews following shoulder to shoulder as they cross through the desert together (c.f. Exodus 32:26). This is meant to be the same way for us today. Our priests do not walk alone but alongside God and abreast of us, the lay people. We are a modern version of the Exodus, leaving the old world behind... but while our walk through life looks different than a desert crossing, the mission of hope is still lived, suffered, and shared together. We are still meant to go forward in the fulness of hope, active in faith and with charity towards our fellow brothers and sisters.
Let us consider that what we do with our lives really does mean something, and our sacrifices are not so insignificant as to have no value in the eyes of God. On the contrary, they are as much a treasure to share and offer as those of anybody, for their real value is tied to our dignity as the beloved children of the Heavenly Father.
Our fellowship has value, and our hope helps define us. With God’s help, we shall continually strengthen our hope that our stride may be purposeful on our path home.
During the Exodus, Moses, in anger, lost the right to step foot on the Holy Land… but even then, he kept his hope… so our merciful God allowed him to glimpse at the land of milk and honey (c.f. Deuteronomy 34:1-5). In time, those of us, brothers and sisters who persist in our faith and our hope, shall also get to see the promised land, for it has been promised by the One who is worthy. In fact, whenever we partake of the Holy Eucharist, in that most beautifully intimate moment when we commune with Christ directly, we glimpse Heaven in fellowship with all the faithful! Let us embrace our hope and continue along our path, together in fellowship with our brothers and sisters that walk alongside Christ. May we go through our modern Exodus and prevail on the blessed road to Heaven. Let us pray: Lord, help us remain faithful and hopeful. May we stay firmly together on the road to Heaven. Amen.
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AuthorsWe are Ivonne J. Hernandez, Rick Hernandez and Laura Worhacz, Lay Associates of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, and brothers and sisters in Christ. |