On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (11). Sanctus.

And a door opened in heaven… (Rev 4:1)

Climbing this spiral stairway at the Eucharist, we arrive with Christ unto Jerusalem and the temple door (Mt 21), and we sing:

Holy, holy, holy Lord God of host
Heaven and earth are full of Your glory (Is 6:5)
Hosanna in the highest
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Ps 118:26)
Hosanna in the highest (Mt 21:9)

This Jerusalem temple door is at the same time His descent into hell and His ascension into heaven (Eph 4:8-10). Sanctus is a sung by heaven and earth. It is through the Eucharistic Sanctus that we enter the quantic paradox of the mystery of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, where heaven meets with humanity.

At this juncture, rhetoric and explanation means nothing. Sanctus is a reality that staggers the faithful and confuses the faithless. Experience alone tells it all. How dare He leads us, poor sinners that we are, through this narrow door (Mt 7:13), which only permits the clean and spotless, and where, even faithful Patriarchs shivered and dared not behold (Is 6:5)?

Sanctus seems to me as the make or break of the Eucharist, where many see but do not perceive (Mk 4:12) and a great lot turn back and follow Him no more (Jn 6:66), leaving only a remnant few to push through (Mt 22:14).

The Catholic Eucharist is one hell of a mystery, meant neither for the lazy nor the ignorant and immoral. But the consoling paradox is that, it is precisely because we are as such that Christ calls us; but we’ve got to be ‘willing’,in order to be vindicated by Him. I have no idea how to explain ‘unwillingness’ away.

At Pentecost, heaven descended through the Spirit, but during Sanctus, we ascend heaven only by the Spirit. We sing in the church with the angels whom we may likely not see up the ceiling or on the high altar; but angels, in reality gush forth in droves, from our mouths, the more we sing in Spirit and in truth (Jn 4: 24).

We may discover nothing of the external reality of heaven if we look without, heaven lies deeply within, and only from within does it manifests without (Lk 17:21) and these are realities greater than our existence to tell.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (10). The Journey Forth.

P The Lord be with you

R And with your spirit.

P Lift up your hearts.
R We lift them up to the Lord.

P Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R It is right and just.

Then the Priest begins some salvific chants which we barely get attentive to, but it is within this inattentiveness that Christ transports the select up the spiral stairs unto the mountainous clouds of unknowing, where eye has not seen, ear has not heard and nothing has entered into the heart of man… (1Cor 2:9).

Who can handle this? May the Lord be with you.

And with your spirit…

It is more realistic that the ‘you’ here has been changed to ‘spirit’; for, now, no matter what our senses portend, we are no more in control, and it is for our good no to be. We cannot handle this arduous and risky journey, so for it to be safe, it has to be an entirely spiritual plight. It is the Spirit that gives life (Jn 6:63), thus necessary it is that we lift up our hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord...

Nothing is found in a heart that is stuck to the earth; so, dropping the earth we lift up the heart. The journey forth, up the mountain to the cloud of unknowing with Christ, is that of the heart, and only a clean heart is capable of lifting the ancient gates (Ps 24). A clean heart clears the mind and thus faith is fostered.

It is useless to assume the capacity to climb unto where we dare not venture. Here, the beggar triumphs, only pleading saves. It is the capacity for a lack of correspondence that can deepen insight (Mt 5:3).

It behoves that the One who dares summon a people with rotten hearts into such inexhaustible ocean of mercy be acquiesced great gratitude, so let us give thanks to the Lord our God!

It is right and just…

The root of everything positive on earth is thanksgiving, the whole secret of success is gratitude. The more we are gracious the more we receive grace. The heart provokes thoughtfulness and a thoughtful mind is a thankful heart. The whole Eucharistic gesture finds meaning in one word: Thanksgiving.

Yinniyinni…

This is what Christ is up to up the clouds of unknowing.Giving the Father thanks. That is how He repays the Lord for humanity (Ps 116: 12-13).

Let us journey up with Him to Jerusalem taking advantage therefore of this thankful brevity called the Eucharist.