Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus
promises eternal life to those who eat his Flesh and drink his Blood.
Many of the Church Fathers characterized the Eucharist as food that
effectively immortalizes those who consume it.
They understood that if Christ is really present in the Eucharistic
elements, the one who eats and drinks the Lord’s Body and Blood becomes
configured to Christ in a far more than metaphorical way. The Eucharist
Christifies and hence eternalizes.
If the Eucharist were no more than a symbol, this kind of language would
be so much nonsense. But if the doctrine of the Real Presence is true,
then this literal eternalization of the recipient of Communion must be
maintained.
But what does this transformation practically entail? It implies that the
whole of one’s life—body, psyche, emotions, spirit—becomes ordered to the
realm of God. It means that one’s energies and interests, one’s purposes
and plans, are lifted out of a purely temporal context and given an
entirely new spiritual valence.
The Christified person knows that his life is not finally about him but
about God; the Eucharistized person understands that her treasure is to
be found above and not below.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment