Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Polosko Monastery of St George Communion of the Apostles - Wikimedia image

Sunday 18 June 2022

The 'culture wars' as they are often called in American Catholicism at the moment, often centre around sharp, hard positions on issues like abortion, but also the reception and other practices surrounding the Holy Eucharist. This has included the formal banning from communion of Catholic politicians whom the bishops suggest are not upholding Church teaching! It matters not, it seems, that the Pope urges us all to get away from 'narrow' legalism and look at a far more pastoral and generous approach to things in general! Yes, by all means we must uphold good, strong, enriching and life-giving teaching, but never in a way that makes of us judges (something the Lord tells us to avoid). Therefore this great feast of the Holy Body and Holy Blood might be a very opportune moment to both examine our consciences and dive deeper into a living theology, spirituality and experience, contained in the wiser and wider purview of the whole meaning of the feast.

My first stop on this small journey is to pick up two phrases from Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, part of which forms our second reading: we start with this: 'For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you'(I Cor 11: 23) This is a small phrase that needs exploration, because here in an almost give away sentence, is the rich theology of what we call the 'tradition' of the Church, the constant handing on of the living theology and presence of Christ found in the gifts first offered by Christ to us. In another latin phrase we can call it an part of the 'Lex Orandi', that living vibrant ( never static) dynamic of our faith found in the actual celebration of sacrament, liturgy and prayer, of which the Holy Eucharist is the primary liturgical celebration!

It is also a reminder that the feast is about our celebration of the Eucharist and of its meaning for us in every nuance, not simply a focus on the 'reserved sacrament', which is after all a derivative of our activity as celebrants together. Ask yourself this; "by receiving communion in this Eucharistic Liturgy what am I doing?' When I receive the Holy Body and Blood, and the words 'the Body of Christ' and 'the Blood of Christ' are said as these gifts are offered what do I actually mean by responding 'Amen'?

The key is all in that word communion and is never a simple, individual alliance with the Lord Jesus, it is dynamic, and open to all, for you and me are part of that living Body of Christ where we strengthen our relationship with Him and the living icons of His presence, by reception of that gift which draws us both inwards and pushes us outwards, to serve for Him in the world NOW! It's worth a real long reflection.

The second passage gives us three thoughts, about behaviour, reception and also outreach.

'For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup'. (I Cor 11:26-28)

Take it like this; firstly, implicit in every celebration of the Eucharist is the fact the we, the Body of Christ, are not only proclaiming the memory and entering into the 'kairos' of his sacrifice and risen life, but through the gift of the Spirit are also accepting by taking and eating, drinking, the offer of loving forgiveness and reconciliation found in these simple gifts. So why then use communion as a weapon? It is a medicine and food of immortality, we have no right to judge a neighbours heart, leave that to Christ.

Secondly Paul is beating a drum about destiny, Eucharist, Communion, all we do is not an end in itself, we are also 'waiting for the Lord until he comes' and that means a real Christian view on the nature of this earth, its concern and care for all on it and our communion in Christ made flesh with this little home. To receive the Eucharist in the communion of bread and cup (yes the fullness of the offer to us is the invitation to accept BOTH bread and cup) is also to accept that all nature is blessed and sacred and we are in communion with it.

Thirdly there is a judgement we must make on ourselves, NOT on one another. In all the years of my ministry as a priest in both the Latin and Byzantine Catholic tradition I have never ever turned away a person from the reception of communion, and I never will, for I have no knowledge of what happened or happens between them, their conscience, and God in those moments of prayer, acclamation and procession to receive the gifts! I may create a greater and more pernicious scandal by my open aggression and refusal to allow someone to approach the Christ. Paul reminds us it is 'I' who need to examine myself, not point a finger at another, so as you celebrate Mass as a community and process to recieve communion, look at yourself, not at any other!

So for all who celebrate the 'Fete Dieu ' as they call it in France, enjoy the richness, the depth and the joy of this festival, and embrace the gift of the Spirit in this wonderful and enriching theology of our relationship with the `Lord `Jesus in the simplicity of human life and the matter understood in this heavenly food so earthly bound!

Lectio

Preparing for Communion

Saint John Chrysotom
I am not sufficient, O Master and Lord, that Thou shouldest enter under the roof of my soul; but as Thou dost will as the Lover of mankind to dwell in me, I dare to approach Thee. Thou commandest: I shall open the doors which Thou alone didst create, that Thou mayest enter with Thy love for mankind, as is Thy nature, that Thou mayest enter and enlighten my darkened thought. I believe that Thou wilt do this, for Thou didst not drive away the sinful woman when she came unto Thee with tears, neither didst Thou reject the publican who repented, nor didst Thou spurn the thief who acknowledged Thy kingdom, nor didst Thou leave the repentant persecutor to himself; but all of them that came unto Thee in repentance Thou didst number among Thy friends, O Thou Who alone art blessed, always, now and unto endless ages. Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom
"How to work out in ourselves such a purity that will make us capable of receiving Communion, and through that Communion to unite with God? I think the question has to be turned around. Only our ties with God can create such a purity. We cannot, in our corruption, cleanse ourselves and then, being a clean vessel, receive God. The Apostle Paul says that we carry holiness in earthen vessels. The vessel is not fit for what is in it. And we cannot first prepare a worthy vessel and then receive in it the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But we can come to God and openly say to Him: 'Lord, come! Lord, flow into me! Unite me with Thyself! I know that I am not worthy, but be Thou like fire which burns away the thorns [of sin and imperfection], not as fire that will burn me away completely in the horror of hell.' And this is something that happens gradually.

If you waited to unite with the Holy Gifts till you became worthy, no one would be able to do it. For a start, one would have to say to the person who says 'Today I shall go to Communion because I am worthy', - 'Oh, no! Not today, because you are puffed with pride or else have lost your senses! More likely than not, lost your senses.' What else could one say? If a person comes forward and says 'I am totally unworthy, but Thou became Man in order to save me' - that is possible."

-Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh, taken from his book Coming Closer to Christ: Confession and Forgiveness

Pope Francis

Angelus

Corpus Christi 2021

"In the Eucharist fragility is strength: the strength of the love that becomes small so as to be welcomed and not feared; the strength of the love that is broken and shared so as to nourish and give life; the strength of the love that is split apart so as to join us in unity,"