On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (6). The Word Liturgy .

Eternity is so very far away. To arrive at eternity, we need an infinity. But eternity is reachable, for it takes a Word to get there. I do not say only in the after-life, but even here in time.

How lofty this Word is, so potent to move us to eternity, so soothing, so healing, so enlightening. A force greater than anything. Born, not created, and yet the source of all creation. The same Word which is simply read and chanted from the lectern, that soundly pronounced and proclaimed from the pulpit: Christ, who was, is, will be, which flows with life, as the water trickling from the southern side of the temple (Ez 47: 1 -12); the same water begging to fill in the Samaritan woman (Jn 4: 5 -42), is, for our sake, also begging to blossom and be incarnated in us. This Word doesn’t die (Mt 24: 35), we do if we do not believe.

This Word, spoken from the pulpit, is that Spirit and Life (Jn 6:63), sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4: 12), which still journeys from creation, in time, finding us in scriptural characters -from Adam to Abraham, from Moses to David-, seeking to revive and enlighten the eyes of our minds, to sharpen the reason of our intellect, to strengthen the might of our will and to purify the scope of our memory; until we are incarnated in his supreme manhood and godhead, Christ the Lord.

The Word still works, for love is a verb. And this Love is what we lack, or we shall see how possible and easy it is to incarnate every possible idea and to journey from life to life.

The infinity we need, to create, is the love of one who is infinite. And who can attain infinite love, but Christ? Our love may be an impediment to freedom, but our faith in him would be an alibi; a faith leveraged on his love, so much so, that a mustard of it is capable to move mountains (Mt: 17: 20). How better measure a mustard faith, if not in the capability of a humility derived from Mary?

The Eucharist is a journey of eternity and I discovered I had to move on, and I wondered where to? Discovering the treasures surrounding the Word Liturgy makes us want to stay. No wonder many a holy gathering stop short at this. And what would be discovered next is about what eye has not seen, what ear has not heard and that which has not entered the heart of man… (1Cor 2:9)

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (5). The 3 Most Ignored Dialogues The Collect. Prayer over Offerings. Prayer after Communion.

That there may not be a repeat of same sentiments later, these 3 most ignored dialogues - occurring at various stages of the Eucharist- have been grouped as a single thought herein.

The devil is in the details. The devil’s strength at preventing the potency of the Eucharistic value lies in distractions to the details of these 3 short, precise and potent prayers: The Collect, Prayer over Offerings and Prayer after Communion.

Who is it that has not had his mind distracted out from these interludes, book read prayers that act as fulcrums and milestones, signalling the next phase of our Eucharistic journey, where faith brings the future to the present for the few discerning and listening minds?

Who, like an ‘O yes’ Member, has not thoughtlessly responded ‘amen’ to these discourses out of which only the sages know the efficacy of such mustard prayers, said within the one true holy, catholic and apostolic church, Christ’s body on earth?

Perhaps we are distracted because we regard these prayers as either not contemporaneous or detailed enough to reflect the pressing motives of our modern longings. But it is here, where dialogues in time opens the heart of eternity.

The potency of these short discourses lie in their collegiality and universality; here, eternity communes with time and speaks of a positive destiny for he who is able to grasp them.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (4). Gloria!

Happy is he whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered Ps 32:1.

This is what happens when atrocities are undeservedly forgiven: Happiness!

Having purged ourselves within the threshold of Signum Crucis, and having passed through the Confiteor’s door, we enter the Gloria room where we behold an interlock of heavenly spirits and a first foretaste of the joy and activity of heaven.

We become absorbed in the Trinity, and with all heavenly hosts we sing praises to God in worship, thanksgiving and adoration. Gloria is what they do in heaven. The Divine dance, Gloria is a waltz with God. How the trumpet should blast, and the bell should ring, and the drum should roll at every Mass in which the Gloria is sung!

How tepid our hearts are, how tepid. We see nothing and feel nothing of this unison of the abode of glory. While some display only an external gesture, leaving one to wonder if anything is left of a deep awe which this reality should provoke; Others remain nonchalant, with neither movement nor singing -as if bored, and awaiting the period to sit- aloof from the wonder which we all struggle to catch.

Gloria is an experience of the heart. We see and feel it deeply in the recess of our being. It is a worship in spirit and in truth (Jn 4: 24). It is heaven, it is salvation, it is happiness, it is what takes place within the household of God. Our hearts should dance more than our body, for this is entirely a spiritual scene.

We enter heaven and we experience something more than a banquet, something akin to a jamboree, but a jamboree of the heart where we are awed by the Trinitarian Person of God.

It is no wonder why the Church has paused the Gloria in favour of a long Confiteor during Lent, to show that it is ‘not yet Uhuru’, and that within the great Lent of this age, we can catch a glimpse of His glory in the great Gloria at Easter.

And I soon experienced this at Mass: For I thought Gloria was the summit, until I realised the house I entered had become a journey, and I had to move on.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (3). Confiteor

From the threshold of the Sign of the Cross we enter through into the straight door of the Confiteor.

How laden with danger and judgement the whole Eucharistic journey is without a proper and truthful individual Confiteor, and yet how distracted and unengaged we become against this responsibility at Mass.

Not him, not her, not anyone, but through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault!

Our ‘Mea Culpa’ becomes otherwise perilous and nothing but a vain service - with neither remorse nor transgressional disdain - when we do not live the spirit and truth of this act of contrition.

While we are spared the embarrassment of public penitence, we should not lessen the necessity to complement our sincere confession to the Father with that to our Brothers and Sisters at Mass. We are, after all a society of sinners.

Responsibility of our sinfulness is the gateway to the fruitfulness of the Eucharist. What perilous path that we expose ourselves without this truth!

How extremely beneficial the office of the Blessed Virgin is in mastering this science of our sinfulness and disproportion in the face of the loftiness of the Eucharistic journey. The Blessed Virgin reveals the truth of our nothingness, littleness and lowliness. The way up is down, and Mary is that down personified.

There are two sides to the love and truth of the Eucharist: It is that of Judgement and of Mercy. Morality cannot be our escape, our alibi is in cultivating a proper attitude, where we can look at our rottenness with courage, and without denial or despair, by the Confiteor’s gate.

The Sacrament of Penance should be multiplied. It is an efficacious act of exorcism. It’s got two big children at Mass: The Confiteor and the Agnus Dei.

It is at Penance that we learn to live and not to shy away from the Paradox within which we are saved.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (2) Signum crucis

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (2)

Signum crucis

As is often typical at Mass, the Sign of the Cross becomes a hurried, thoughtless gesture where we become oblivious of the trouble and triumph that is contained therein. Yes, trouble and triumph.

By this mysterious gesture, we enter a judgement to the destined path of Trinity for the aware. The cross is at the same time a beginning and an end; a misery and a victory, misery for the unaware and victory for the faithful. Our baptism becomes our alibi and the impetus that forges us on to heaven.

The sign of the cross is the very same sign that shall appear as our judgement at the end of time (Mt 24:30); a judgement already begun at Mass, starting from that simple gesture.

I do not judge myself, I only, in my wretchedness, stick with the Church and the faith of Peter, where I realize that this journey is a done deal; that the war is a won one. 

Signum crucis is the beginning, the threshold of His house, whence, staying put benefits more than lingering at the tents of the wicked (Ps 84: 10). 

How often necessary it is then, that we multiply this sign daily. It becomes a judgement to the world, a judgement where opinionizing is useless and only mercy is necessary.

I realize then why, at Mass, after the gesture of the cross, there comes quickly a plead for mercy: the Confiteor.

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (1).

Sitting at Mass one day I became bombarded with varied distractions, and it was during this powerlessness and disproportion with reality that this thought was born. O blessed distraction!

God’s presumption about my proportion begs of my correspondence. I am shaken by my sins and the Environs's distractions in the face of this entire Cosmos acting as One. 

Crying kids, ringing phones, chatting adults, rambling thoughts, the irreverence of both Priest and Laity, interested only in getting the job done.

The Church calls it the source and summit of the Christian life, I experience this profound mystery as a work and war at creation. 

The Eucharist is the life of Christ, of the Israelites, of the Church, of Creation; that which was, is and will be, happening in time and as presence. 

The Eucharist is the covenant of mercy and of judgement, but a judgement consumed by mercy for the aware.

More importantly, as I discovered on the pew: the Eucharist is a journey, a journey through which I want to travel from obedience and curiosity, exploring my discoveries each week during this Lent and unto Easter tide.

EUCHARIST

 

Eucharist is a judgement, but a believer is not judged, but through it, passes from life to life. An unbeliever is judged in his ignorance, and it can be a terrible thing to receive the Eucharist into a heart that is skeptical. 

How then do we rate faith? A mustard seed type we were told is necessary. This mustard faith is found in humility. No man is worthy. We must dig more and more into this realm of unworthiness if we are to profit more from the Eucharist.

Without true and practical humility, we harm our receptiveness of the Eucharist. It is not morality as much as humility that determines our faith, thus a gateway towards receptivity of the Eucharist.

Don't receive callously.