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June 10, 2023
This past week was momentous for our one grandson, as he “graduated” from preschool. It was an even bigger event for Grandma. She had to get a gift and tried valiantly to find an appropriate card. (There wasn’t one.) But the graduate was completely unimpressed. When asked if he was going to miss school, he said, (and I quote), “Uhhhh…no.” I get it. Some things are a bigger deal than other things, right?
Today we celebrate a big deal. The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is one of those feast days that is really special and yet, so often, goes right over our heads. And I get it. Transubstantiation is a big word that is hard to say and even harder to understand. Somebody in the church decided to throw all the hard to understand feasts at us all at once. First Pentecost, then Trinity Sunday, and today, the Body & Blood of Christ. Woof. Just pass the host and I’m good, okay?
Part of the problem, I think, is that it is so hard to prove these things rationally. We live in a rational world. If I can see it, and explain it, then it is real. If I cannot, well then, it can’t be real. And while I firmly believe that science is real, I also leave a place for mystery. Because, well, there are just things that I know to be real, but cannot fully explain. For me, the lack of complete knowing is not a hindrance, it is freedom. I am free to trust God that the mystery is true and that I will understand it at some point in my existence. As Monsignor John Zenz taught me, I need to be willing to “stand under” the outpouring of God’s great love and grace.
One of the great things about the rapid succession of these feast days (Pentecost, Trinity, Body & Blood) is that they follow and support each other. The Holy Spirit is shared with the church (us) at Pentecost, and then we celebrate the inter-relationship of the triune God and then, today, we celebrate the relationship with that God we are allowed, no, encouraged, to share through the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s so much more than just receiving the host.
The Eucharist is our connection with the constant outpouring of our God by the Holy Spirit thru the Word of Life: Jesus. It’s okay to not be able to fully understand or explain it. I just need to allow myself to believe. I believe that the Eucharist really is the Body and Blood of Jesus. I can’t explain it. I just believe. It’s real. It’s a big deal.
Fr. Richard Rohr says it like this: “You can live this [Eucharistic] mystery yourself. Trust love, trust communion, trust vulnerability, and trust mutuality. Always seek to be in relationship, finding little ways to serve others, to serve people who are sick or poor and cannot pay anything back. Know that our hearts have been given to us so that they may be handed on, just like the Trinity. And we’ll begin to know ourselves inside this mystery called Love. There is actually nothing more to say.”
Don’t try to work this out too much with your head. Just trust that it is real, even if it is a mystery. It will always feel like love. It’s a big deal.
Every Day.
