Seeing the slain victim on the altar, the barrier preventing the positivity of our existence are removed and the Director of Destinies perfectly effects His covenant of mercy on the world, through the Church, the body of His Christ.
On our part, to boost access to this mercy, we exercise the faith from Peter, the Rock upon whom His Church is built (Mt 16:18) and we pray in unison with her and plead this mercy of the Father, upon us and upon the entire world, for, we are the world.
Our concentration waver as the Eucharistic prayers are read, and the opportunity that this collegial prayer offers are ignored, but it is upon our interests and desires for these Church’s prayers that the efficacy of our individual requests depends. They are usually in 4 parts:
1. The Church thanks and prays for unity.
The disintegration which started at Eden is forced into a reversal unto unity by the Church when it re-enacts the event of Calvary on the altar through the power of the Holy Spirit. We then see how humanity is one, how creation is unity, how the energy for the convergence of everything, the much sought after ‘Theory of Everything’, has its source from this Eucharist!
2. The Church prays for an increase in love within herself.
Blood may be thicker than water, but the water of Baptism is thicker than the Blood of human relationship. Lasting relationship is that which is achieved in Christ through the Church. Baptism acquires a more lasting bond than the bond of birth. Baptism determines reality. It makes sense then, that the cornerstones of this determinants -The Pope, Bishops, Priests, et all- be prayed for, for they would mean more to us, now and for eternity.
3. The Church prays for her departed.
It is this bond with the Church, by a potent love acquired within the Eucharist, that gives man the supreme ability to bring, not just his close relations, but his entire lineage and ancestry to life. Eucharist is the last hope of humankind, both living and dead. The love of the Eucharistic sacrifice, as of Bethany (Jn:11), produces the charitable capacity to raise our fallen beloveds. The more that faith in the Eucharist is multiplied, the more our love is broadened and the more we acquire the cogent capacity to raise the departed through the capacity of a shared memory.
4. The Church looks forward in hope.
It is often said that where the Pope is, there we find the Church; but more so, where Christ in the Eucharist is, there we see heaven. Christ is the head of the Church. Heaven starts from the head, the position of the intellect, mind and will. A gaze on the head, the slain Lamb on the Eucharistic altar, brings us to heaven on earth. It wouldn’t get any better within this plane of existence. We should be steadfast in hope so that what we know here by faith, may for eternity be experienced by sight.
