On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (9). The Summon

P: Pray my Brothers and Sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty Father.

R: (i) May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hand (ii) for the praise and glory of His name (iii) for our good and the good of all His Holy Church.

After the offertory, we stand on the precipice of a seemingly endless spiral stair, like the scroll which no human can open (Rev 5: 4) and unto the floors which leads to the clouds of unknowing.

‘May the Lord accept the sacrifice…’

A wasted gentile that I am, I discovered this Eucharistic journey as that within the summit of a history of works and sacrifices, of which neither me nor my ancestors have done much to build. 

The culmination of the toils of the Patriarchs, from Abel, to Abraham, to Jacob, to every Israelite great and small, is that which I have found myself, as its unworthy beneficiary in time, where everything happens because of me, simply and fast, as lightning (Mt 24:27), until we lose its sense of its awe.

Much reverenced and dreaded are the non-Christian rituals, because they are more adept at manifesting their potency; but a dying bull kicks the hardest, an empty barrel makes the most sound. Gravity may bully, but it is the weakest of the 4 universal forces. The real God’s strength is foolishness, because it manifests in simplicity and humility Its potency is as gentle as silence. 

‘For the Praise and glory of His name…’

The Kingdom of God is not ‘till thy kingdom come’. It is a praise and glory which happens in time. The Lord does always accept the sacrifice from His People, but we little know what we have come unto (Heb 12: 22-24). 

What goes around comes around, the praise and glory of His name that we pray for adds nothing unto Him. The Lord’s motive for acceptance of the sacrifice, of the praise and glory of His name, lies in the fact ‘that we may see! (Lk 18:41)’. Awe is the pedestal of the spiral stair leading to the cloud of unknowing!

‘…Our good and the good of all His Holy Church'

A Priest sacrifices God for a people and mirrors the privileged site and scene that supersedes where we have ever been, what we have ever seen and what we have ever done. 

As I stood by the door leading to the endless spiral stair, I did not see God, I did not see Christ, I only saw Father (So and so) who represents a materialism that fades further into the spirit, the farther that I climb the stairs in response to his summon. 

No man is an island, the further we would go with the Priest along this stair, the clearer we shall see that ‘ I am we’ , ‘you are us’ and only the Church is real!

On the Eucharist: Thoughts from the Pew (8). Offertory, and the Biddings of the Faithful.

When Creed becomes real in us, charity grows, even to the point of selling all for a treasure worth our life (Mt13:44). 

In the Eucharist, the fellowship of His sufferings lies within the contributory works of mercy arising from bidding prayers and offertory(Phil3:10). 

It is therefore proper that this gestures of Spiritual and Corporal Charity (works of mercy) follow that of the Creed, where we make our mustard contribution to the great Eucharistic miracle of mercy.

Our Christmas is as good as our Advent; Our Easter is as good as our Lent, and our Eucharistic benefit is as good as the humility in our Kyrie, the faith in our Credo, and the love within our bidding prayers and Offertory.

Who has never faced struggled regarding how much to drop into the offertory bag? When we are tempted to be calculative about offertory, or callous with bidding prayers,did we give in?

The clarity of our Credo determines the bounty of our Offertory and the gesture of our offertory is a reflection of quality of our faith. Creed is our faith, Offering is our love (2Cor9:6). Only a Faith animated by charity leads us into the heavenly realm of the Eucharist. 

From a clear Creed is born the awareness that, money may belong to Caesar, but Caesar belongs to God (Mk12:17). Letting go of money is a great reflection about the extent we can sacrifice self (Lk14:33). The more we let go of mammon, the more we understand the treasures within the Eucharistic realm, until we find the pearl of great price (Mt13:46). 

Even thus knowing, forcing an act of generosity on another is a devilish act , often making the last state worse than the first in the person (Lk 11:26). Gentle admonition is what provokes conversion and spontaneous giving, not harsh cajoling .

Our giving at offertory is work, work (with Faith) is what creates, and this work also manifests in the entire liturgical actions of sound responses, audible songs and participatory services during Mass. These are the greatest works we may ever do on earth (Jn 6:27).

Our toils and sweats are what our money represent , and a collegial giving of these finds an ultimate unity in the one bread of the Eucharist, for it is from money that the wheat for the Eucharistic bread and fruit of the Eucharistic wine, which are offered to God, are procured, which then becomes the constituent of our Lord and savior: the Bread of Life (Jn6:35). 

It’s myopic to be stingy at Mass; what goes around comes around. The strength of the Eucharist is in the love with which we offer ourselves in our money. The pure love we give becomes infinitely less  than the mercy that we receive. An exchange we can never regret. 

And henceforth in the room, the baton of the journey lies entirely within the control of the Spirit...