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Doing
the Eucharist
Feast
of Corpus Christi
June
12/13, 2004
Fr.
George Smiga
Luke
9:11b-17
The
Eucharist is not simply something we receive; it is something
we do. The Eucharist is not simply a noun; it is fundamentally
a verb, an action. Now we believe many important things about
the noun of the Eucharist. We believe that the bread and wine
become for us the real Body and Blood of the Lord. This is
what we celebrate today on the Feast of Corpus Christi. When
we eat this bread and drink this cup we receive into our hearts
the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. This is a great
mystery and a great treasure. We should receive the Eucharist
often. But we cannot appreciate the Body and Blood of the
Lord, the noun of the Eucharist, if we separate it from the
verb of the Eucharist. For it is the action of the Eucharist
that allows the bread and wine to become the Body and Blood
of Christ for us.
So,
what is the action of the Eucharist? It is what we do together
every weekend. What do we do? We gather, we listen, we bless,
we eat, and we go forth. All these verbs are verbs of Eucharist.
We gather from our homes, from our work and come together
in this place to create an assembly, a community of believers.
The gathering is important because the action of the Eucharist
is not the action of one person but of many. It is the action
of the church. We listen: we hear the Word of God proclaimed
in the Scriptures and in the homily and we remember what God
has done for us, what God has promised us and how God is active
in our lives. We bless: we bless God in the Eucharistic Prayer,
we stand together from the Holy, Holy to the Great Amen and
say this prayer of blessing and consecration. It is the priest
who says the words but the prayer is not the priest's prayer,
it is our prayer, the prayer of the whole assembly and when
we bless and pray this prayer together in memory of Jesus,
the real presence of Jesus comes into our midst. We then eat
the Body and Blood of the Lord, receiving the nourishment
of Christ and then we go forth, forth from this place to bring
Christ's message to the world.
These
are the verbs of the Eucharist: gathering, listening, blessing,
eating, and going forth. Only in the context of this action
is the true significance of the Body and Blood of Christ clear.
So allow me today to point to two truths that flow from the
action of the Eucharist, two truths that affect our lives—our
dignity and our obligation.
The
action of blessing in the Eucharist reveals to us our dignity
as daughters and sons of God. The tremendous gift of Christ's
Body and Blood would not happen if we did not ask for it.
It is in the Eucharistic Prayer, led by the priest, that the
community asks for the gift of Christ's presence. God's willingness
to honor our prayer reveals our dignity as God's own children.
The dignity we have is not an individual dignity but a dignity
that we share as a community. Everyone who stands gathered
around this altar is a holy person. Together, we form a royal
priesthood, a holy people. As we bless together the bread
and wine of the Eucharist, we recall our value and the value
of one another. The action of blessing together reveals this
dignity to us.
The
action of going forth, of leaving this Eucharist is an action
that reveals our obligation. Because if we have received the
Word of the Lord and shared together in the Body and Blood
of the Lord, we then have an obligation to bring that life
of Christ to others. Going forth from this place reminds us
that we have come her to be refreshed and recommitted to action
for the Kingdom. We should go forth from this place willing
to be more patient with our family, less critical of our neighbor,
more committed to service of others, less fearful in our struggles
with evil. The action of going forth from this place reminds
us that the action of the Eucharist does not end here, it
is meant to continue in our lives, in our efforts to build
the Kingdom, to transform the world.
There
is no doubt that the Body and Blood of Christ, Christ's Real
Presence, is a tremendous gift to us, but the meaning of that
gift is not clear if it is separated from the action of the
Eucharist. Eucharist is a verb: gathering, listening, blessing,
eating, going forth. It is we the church, reminding ourselves
of our dignity and obligation. We do not simply receive the
Eucharist. We do it! So let's do it now!
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