Monday, February 21, 2011

Eucharist

"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." Mat. 5:6

"Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."  John 6:53-55

"I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you." John 14:25-26

"So that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me." John 17:21

"For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:10-11

"For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; And everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering; For great is my name among the nations, says the LORD of hosts." Malachi 1:11

"Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1 Cor. 5:7-8

"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf." 1 Cor. 10:16-18

"For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." 1 Cor. 11:23-26

"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship." Rom 12:1

'"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." Rev 3:20


Did you know that Catholic Christians believe in Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist? When Jesus told His disciples of this at the Last Supper, they found it difficult to accept. The Church has taught this for nearly 2000 years. The Church is the People of God and the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit gathers you with your parish family and with Catholics all over the world. Because you have sinned during the week, it is a time to become right again with God and others. So by gathering as the Body of Christ, you are strengthened so that you will live faithfully when you leave.  

Eucharist means “Thanksgiving.”  Each time you participate in the Eucharist, you are invited to show your thankfulness to God. You should not regard the Eucharist as merely a symbol or symbolic reminder of the Last Supper celebration as other faiths may believe. The celebration of the Eucharist unites all of history as well as joins heaven and earth. You go to Mass to share a meal with Jesus. As you know, sharing a meal brings people closer together; a special meal is sometimes called a banquet or feast. The Eucharist is the Church's special meal, and you gather at the Eucharist to celebrate God's love for you. Gifts of bread and wine are brought to the altar for the priest to bless and make holy. Through the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus. Because Jesus is the Bread of Life and is celebrated in the meal of the Eucharist, you share in the life of the Risen Christ.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, God changes the bread and wine so they become Jesus Himself. It still looks and tastes like bread and wine, but it is really Jesus in the form of bread and wine. He comes in the form of bread to remind us of His body and in the form of wine to remind us of His blood. It is a memorial of Jesus' death, a celebration of His resurrected life and an expectation of His coming in glory. It is the transformation of the bread and wine into the "bread of heaven" and "the cup of salvation," or in other words, the Eucharist becomes the Body and Blood of Christ ... the actual flesh and blood of Jesus which we receive in Holy Communion.  Going to Mass every Sunday, no matter what, reminds us that amid all of the uncertainty and changes, we gather to give our week to God, to praise and thank God for all the gifts we’ve been given. Going to Mass every Sunday, reminds you that even though there may be uncertainty and changes in your life, you gather to give our week to God, to praise and thank God for all the gifts you've been given. It’s about praising God and taking part in the meal that reminds us who we are: the Body of Christ. That gives us new energy to help transform our world.

Jesus wants to be very close to you. He wants to become part of you and for you to become part of Him. The Eucharist helps us to be more like Jesus.  Every time you recieve the Eucharist your soul becomes clean of any venial sin (a lesser sin that does not completely separate you from God) you committed through the week.  God really comes to you in a special way in Holy Communion. When you receive Jesus in the sacrament of Holy Communion, you are expected to bring Jesus to others. You not only receive Him but He receives you. You are having an intimate dining experience with Jesus during Mass It is a celebration offered all over the world and unites all believers to the Lord's sacrifice. All those participating from east to west in this perfect sacrifice are bound to the Lord and to one another. In this sacrificial offering, God is glorified, you are sanctified, and the Catholic Church is built up. Jesus, our Paschal Lamb becomes sacrificed at this banquet and is a worthy offering to God the Father. When you take the cup of salvation it means Jesus offers you to God as you offer yourself through Him to His Father.

The priest acts in the person of Christ, following His command to "do this in memory of me," but it is really Christ's action that causes the consecration or transubstantiation or the changing of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is when the priest lays his hands over the hosts and wine that it becomes the very person of Jesus. It is through the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit as well as the actions of the priest that the bread from earth becomes living bread from heaven.

In the Eucharist you become one body. You are filled with God's grace and love. You go forth to serve others and help those who need your help. This is how you love and serve Jesus. By eating and drinking of his Body and Blood, you proclaim the Good News and God's mighty works. With Christ in you, it will be food for the journey of your faith life. You will see that the Eucharist will satisfy your spiritual hunger. You are nourished so you may feed others and bless others with Christ's presence. He wants to feed you with the bread from heaven and quench your thirst with the cup of His salvation every time at Communion so you can spread God's message of salvation. After the last blessing in Mass, you are sent into the world as disciples of Christ and treat one another as Jesus would.  The Eucharist gives you the strength to live your life in a remarkable way.  You are called to be the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus in our world today.  The church has  a mission to send you on, the mission is to make this world a better place, a place more like the way God would have things.” You just we need a community to accompany us and send us forth, which is exactly what the Mass does each week.  The Eucharist must lead to action and this is how the power of the Eucharist can transform or change the world.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Redemptive Suffering/Offering it Up

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, " Col 1:24


"If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy." I Corinthians 12:26

"Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong." II Cor 12:8-10

"We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." II Corinthians 4:8-12

"More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and (the) sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:8-11

"So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name." Acts 5:41

"Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope" Romans 5: 2-3

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us." Romans 8:18

"For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering." Heb 2: 10

The Catechism of the Catholic Church encourages and reminds us of our vocation: "By His passion and death on the Cross, Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to Him and unite us with His redemptive passion" (#1505).

"Once you are joined to the Lord, you become as omnipresent as He is. Instead of offering assistance in one particular place, doctor, nurse, or priest, in the power of the Cross you have the ability to be everywhere at once. At every scene of misery. Your compassionate love, drawn from the Redeemer's Heart, can take you in all directions, allowing you to sprinkle on every side the Precious Blood that soothes, heals and redeems." (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD)

"Jesus did not come to do away with suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with His presence.” Paul Claudell


Do you know what the words “offering it up” mean? When you endure suffering or any painful experience, you shouldn’t waste it but make it mean something. Offering up your sufferings in love of the Lord and uniting yourself to Jesus is also called redemptive suffering. We can give Jesus the gift of our redemptive suffering by offering up to Him your not so fun or easy trials. This will bring you closer to Jesus because He allows you to unite or merge your difficulties with Him like when Jesus redeemed us from sin with His death on the Cross. Christ also allows you to help Him in his work of repairing souls and bring more people to Him. Jesus invites you to share in His life or enter into His suffering so you can make up for the sins you have committed. It can be done with any small thing from having a headache to a disliked chore. So if you have an annoyance with your brother or sister, offer it up to God as a sacrifice and put your suffering to good use so you won’t feel like a victim but instead do it joyfully for the Lord!

Every hardship and weakness is an opportunity for God to display His redemptive and saving power in your life. The Passion of the Lord on the Cross was how we were freed from sin. That is why the hardships and trials of daily life are considered your crosses to bear in life. Know that the hard times are all a part of your Christian journey and you should welcome your crosses in your life since they will only make your faith stronger to become His disciple. A cross can be physical pain, disappointments, humiliations, sickness, sadness and delays for example. Just think how many opportunities of spiritual growth and for helping others are wasted in complaining about the crosses in your life. So try to willingly accept without complaint the little irritations, frustrations and inconveniences that come your way. This way you can be collaborators in the work of Christ's redemption, building up His Kingdom in the world around you with not only your prayers and good works but also your sufferings.

Your walk with Jesus is not about explaining the mysteries of this life but understanding the truth - the truth being that you have a God who loves you so much He sent His Son to die for you. You live in a world that is filled with problems and struggles from which none of you can escape nor can you completely explain. In those hard times, you can cry out to our Heavenly Father for comfort. He is with you, walking with you, carrying you through all of life’s struggles. So you have a choice. Do you dwell on struggling to find the answers to the "why" or do you look to our Lord and place your trust in Him? You cannot understand what God's purpose or plan is for you. He has given you His Holy Spirit to guide you and comfort you. You are called to look towards Him and know that He is with you and will never go through your struggles alone. The Lord does not want you to not get caught up in trying to explain the mystery, but to focus on Him. So when you cry out why, He alone will give you peace and rest.

God can handle the tears, the screaming, and the groaning from our hearts. He’s big enough. He loves you and is the closest to you at those times. He is not done with you yet. God is using your circumstances to recreate your life. In tough times, God gives you opportunities to see how big He really is. If you look closely in the midst of troubles, you can see that God is not finished making you stronger, deeper and more reliant upon Him.

In suffering you may be tempted to lose hope and faith in the Lord’s love and in His desire for your eternal life with Him. But that same suffering can teach you, if you let it, to turn to God and place your hope and trust in Him. You'll develop a better character while learning some of the fruits of the Spirit ... .love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control...

So remember the promise and hope that the Lord is walking with you the entire time in the midst of your pain and struggles. He will not leave you on your own to handle things by yourself. He is walking with you, guiding you, strengthening you and helping you build character and perseverance so you can remain strong. You shouldn't always pray that others may be delivered from their pains, but rather pray to God that He would give them strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases.

So what are some ways to "offer it up?" You could say the Morning Offering every day when you wake up since it dedicates your entire day to God. Or you can stop at a moment of stress, or as you enter into a situation that you know will be stressful, and make the Sign of the Cross and say something like, "O Jesus, I offer up my struggles and sacrifices today for the relief of the Holy Souls in Purgatory." Or after you may have gone to confession and are truly sorry for your sins, you can help living people that are in need too by offering up your bad time to them, winning them grace from God. You may ask that your suffering be applied to a special petition for someone. God will use them for the good of the Church when you accept the pain of stubbing your toe or having to wait in line a long time. Of course this act is hard to do but will make your suffering meaningful for another. You will then reduce your sin penalty, repairing your soul so you will be rewarded in Heaven.  So don't run away from suffering since it will only strengthen you, humble you and set you on the path to becoming a saint.