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April 2004: Called To The Gathering - The Gift |
| Week 1: The Gift Of
The Gathering We Journey With One Another We are each incomplete, but together we make Church. In the last section, we looked at the difficulties and the challenges of gathering. However, there is also a great and tremendous gift of coming together. The truth is, we need one another. God never intended that we should live our lives journey alone. On our own, we are incomplete. Together, we make Church. Clearly, in our gathering, we will come to taste the goodness of God in a way that we will come to know that in no other place. Christ is present for us at Eucharist, in a wonderful way, in the gathered assembly. We Receive One Another St. Augustine around the year 400 said that, "When we come forward to receive Communion, we ought to consider saying two Amens. The first is Amen, "Yes, This is the Body of Christ". The second is Amen, "Yes, We are the Body of Christ". Christ is present in us. We Believe With One Another We see, the Body of Christ is not only ON the table, but also AT the table. For me personally, though I know that no one can make my choices for me, I also know that I am not good enough to do it alone. If I were to try to live my faith all by myself, it would undoubtedly become narrow and selfish, and ultimately die. I need the support and challenge of community. Even if everything else were taken from me, I would still need someone to believe WITH. That is why I am so grateful for the gifts of small faith communities. We Need One Another To Share Life Stories Why we so encourage others to have a group where they are known, and among whom they can pray, struggle and share their life stories, we know that for everyone, life is sometimes extremely difficult. How many people come to Church with broken hearts, weighed down by life struggle and losses. At other times, it's just hard to believe, and our faith feels weak. It is those times that we can let our faith and our communities carry us. For, in the gathered community, we find the Risen Jesus in our midst. We Need To Trust That God Will Be There We are afraid for people who do not have the habit of faith. For those who do not have the habit of Eucharist in their lives, when the difficult day comes, and the losses are big, those days will come, and we will lose and we will lose again. The roots won't be in the rock of faith. So that they can come through that storm, that loss, that trouble, into life. We need to trust that God will be there for you, in your community, with all its flaws and imperfections. God will be there for you in those people. It's been that way for many, again and again that God has been there for many, people of the communities that we've been a part of. Though they have never been perfect either, often God has been there, and often in surprising ways. We Need To Welcome The God Of Surprises Sometimes we think we got so decided what intimacy should look like, and how God should be there, that we miss some of the ways that God actually is there. The God who comes to us in surprise through the ordinary people of our lives. This bread, the one broken and becomes many. And we, though many, through our sharing in this one bread, and the cup, become ONE. We Need To Be United With God's People Everywhere It is important to say one more thing about our gathering for Eucharist. When we come together to celebrate the Eucharist, we are bonded with more than just the people we can see with our eyes. At Eucharist, we are united with God's people all over the world. We could be thousands of miles from home but here, we are united with our loved ones and with all God's peoples in a special bonding. Week 2: The Day Of The Church A Lively Sense Of Community - Community Celebration The dies Domini is also the dies Ecclesiae. This is why on the pastoral level the community aspect of the Sunday celebration should be particularly stressed. Among the many activities of a parish, "none is as vital or as community-forming as the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist". Mindful of this, the Second Vatican Council recalled that efforts must be made to ensure that there is "within the parish, a lively sense of community, in the first place through the community celebration of Sunday Mass. Subsequent liturgical directives made the same point, asking that on Sundays and holy days the Eucharistic celebrations held normally in other churches and chapels be coordinated with the celebration in the parish church, in order "to foster the sense of the Church community, which is nourished and expressed in a particular way by the community celebration on Sunday, whether around the Bishop, especially in the Cathedral, or in the parish assembly, in which the pastor represents the Bishop". The Privileged Place Of Unity - Catholic Families The Sunday assembly is the privileged place of unity: it is the setting for the celebration of the sacramentum unitatis (sacrament of unity) which profoundly marks the Church as a people gathered "by" and "in" the unity of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For Christian families, the Sunday assembly is one of the most outstanding expressions of their identity and their "ministry" as "domestic churches", when parents share with their children at the one Table of the Word and the Bread of Life. We do well to recall in this regard that it is first of all the parents who must teach their children to participate in Sunday Mass; they are assisted in this by catechists, who are to see to it that initiation into the Mass is made a part of the formation imparted to the children entrusted to their care, explaining the important reasons behind the obligatory nature of the precept. When circumstances suggest it, the celebration of Masses for Children, in keeping with the provisions of the liturgical norms, can also help in this regard. Diverse Groups At Sunday Masses in parishes, insofar as parishes are "Eucharistic communities", it is normal to find different groups, movements, association and even the smaller religious communities present in the parish. This allows everyone to experience in common what they share most deeply, beyond the particular spiritual paths which, by discernment of Church authority, legitimately distinguish them. The Privileged Place Of Unity - Parish Community This is why on Sunday, the day of gathering, small group Masses are not to be encouraged: it is not only a question of ensuring that parish assemblies are not without the necessary ministry of priests, but also of ensuring that the life and unity of the Church community are fully safeguarded and promoted. Authorisation of possible and clearly restricted exceptions to this general guideline will depend upon the wise discernment of the Pastors of the particular Churches, in view of special needs in the area of formation and pastoral care, and keeping in mind the good of individuals or groups - especially the benefits which such exceptions may bring to the entire Christian community. Week 3: A Pilgrim People Of Hope A Journeying People As the Church journeys through time, the reference to Christ's Resurrection and the weekly recurrence of this solemn memorial help to remind us of the pilgrim and eschatological character of the People of God. Sunday after Sunday the Church moves towards the final "Lord's Day", that Sunday which knows no end. An Expecting People The expectation of Christ's coming is inscribed in the very mystery of the Church and is with its specific remembrance of the glory of the Risen Christ, the Lord's Day recalls with greater intensity the future glory of his "return". This makes Sunday the day on which the Church, showing forth more clearly Her identity as "Bride", anticipates in some sense the eschatological reality of the heavenly Jerusalem. A Desiring People Gathering her children into the Eucharistic assembly and teaching them to wait for the "divine Bridegroom", She engages in a kind of "exercise of desire", receiving a foretaste of the joy of the new heavens and new earth, when the holy city, the new Jerusalem, will come down from God. "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Rev 21:2) A Hopeful People Viewed in this way, Sunday is not only the day of faith, but is also the day of Christian hope. To share in "the Lord's Supper" is to anticipate the eschatological feast of the "marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:9). Celebrating this memorial of Christ, risen and ascended into heaven, the Christian community waits "in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ". Renewed and nourished by this intense weekly rhythm, Christian hope becomes the leaven and the light of human hope. A Caring People This is why the Prayer of the Faithful responds not only to the needs of the particular Christian community but also to those of all humanity, and the Church, coming together for the Eucharistic celebration, shows to the world that she makes her own "the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of people today, especially of the poor and all those who suffer". A Sacramental People With the offering of the Sunday Eucharist, the Church crowns the witness which her children strive to offer everyday of the week by proclaiming the Gospel and practicing charity in the world of work and in all the many tasks of life; thus She shows forth more plainly Her identity "as a sacrament", or sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the entire human race. Week 4:. EASTER BANQUET AND FRATERNAL GATHERING THE EASTER BANQUET The communal character of the Eucharist emerges in a special way when it is seen as the Easter banquet, in which Christ himself becomes our nourishment. In fact, “for this purpose Christ entrusted to the Church this sacrifice: so that the faithful might share in it, both spiritually, in faith and charity, and sacramentally, in the banquet of Holy Communion. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST Sharing in the Lord’s Supper is always communion with Christ, who offers himself for us in sacrifice to the Father. This is why the Church recommends that the faithful receive communion when they take part in the Eucharist, provided that they are properly disposed and , if aware of grave sin, have received God’s pardon in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in the spirit of what Saint Paul writes to the community at Corinth (cf.1 Cor. 11:27 – 32). Obviously, the invitation to Eucharistic communion is more insistent in the case of Mass on Sundays and holy days. COMMUNION WITH SISTERS AND BROTHERS It is also important to be ever mindful that communion with Christ is deeply tied to communion with our brothers and sisters. The Sunday Eucharistic gathering is an experience of brotherhood, which the celebration should demonstrate clearly, while ever respecting the nature of the liturgical action. All this will be helped by gestures of welcome and by the tone of prayer, alert to the needs of all in the community. COMMUNION THROUGH PEACE The sign of peace – in the Roman Rite significantly placed before Eucharistic communion – is a particularly expressive gesture which the faithful are invited to make as a manifestation of the People of God’s acceptance of all that has been accomplished in the celebration and of the commitment to mutual love which is made in sharing the one bread. COMMUNION THROUGH RECONCILIATION The evangelistic assembly keeps the demanding works of Christ in mind: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Mt. 5:23 – 24) |