Sixth Sunday of Easter
Dear Parish Family,
Momentous moments might be a bit of a tautology, but the phrase does suit, does it not? Some moments move us more. Some experiences carry greater depth and purpose for our lives. And these we remember better. Impactful moments, or the first occurrences, we tend to remember it better. Novelty helps with memory. Also, the emotion that we carry into the moment helps it to be impressed more deeply on our memories. And when our attention is divided, when we are not fully engaged in the moment, memory can be quite poor, which is why we forget what we went to the kitchen for, but that is another issue. Art of Manliness has an interesting podcast on memory or check out the book: Why We Remember.
We are heading into a season of heightened memories. The months of May and June are full of graduations, weddings, ordinations, and other celebrations. And the first Sunday in May is often reserved for First Holy Communion. Do you remember your first communion? What is your prominent memory about the Holy Eucharist?
Although we have not discussed it in a while, we are still in the Eucharistic Revival year chosen by all the Bishops of the United States. This is a special time meant to be lived with heightened sensitivity and desire for the Eucharist. We have sought to bolster Eucharistic awareness and desire by hosting the Eucharistic Miracles Exhibit and also by holding Eucharistic adoration on Sundays. But in a certain sense both efforts, while strengthening devotion may not be the best at initiating it.
The core teaching of the Eucharist is that Jesus gives us Himself, to unite us to Him, that we might live in and through Him. This is what it means to be in communion with God. The Holy Eucharist is an incredibly unique nourishment. It is the presence of the Second Person of the Trinity. Jesus gives us Himself to unite us to Him, but also to transform us, to make us holy. The Eucharist is the one food that does not become part of us as we consume it; rather, we become part of it.
And the core teaching of Christianity is that we need God in our lives. We need salvation and we cannot save ourselves. Christ the Son was sent from the Father to become like us in all things but sin and to be the remedy for what ails us. In some ways, we could summarize Christianity into two of the names we often use for our Lord: Jesus - God saves, and Emmanuel - God-with-us. Perhaps in some ways lack of appreciation for the Eucharist, for communion with God, surfaces from a deeper lack of awareness for the human need for salvation.
This Sunday, we hear the words of John’s First Letter: “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through Him.” (1 Jn 4:9) Real life is to be had through the Son and for that reason He was sent. Jesus tells us: “I am the way and the truth and the life,” (Jn 14:6) and with a more explicitly Eucharistic focus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” (Jn 6:51). One more addition: “I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn 10:10) We can layer those verses over one another and see how life and living are the key repeating realities.
Our Lord Jesus wants to invite us to a new and radical way of being connected to Him, and from that connection to have a new way of existence, a way that we no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died and rose for us, to borrow from Paul. This weekend our P.R.E.P. students will receive Jesus sacramentally into themselves for the first time. Please pray for them and pray that our whole parish may grow in devotion to the miracle and power of the Sacrament.
In His presence,
Fr. Joel
