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March 2004: Called To The Gathering - The Challenge |
| Week 1: The Challenge Of
The Gathering We Gather With People Of Different Races, Languages And Way Of Life One of the most important actions of the Eucharist is the gathering itself. Coming together with people of different races, languages and way of life, in that gathering, God calls us again and again to open our eyes and hearts to see that we are indeed sisters and brothers. This is so much more than our little private time. For we never celebrate the Eucharist alone. Rather, God has always called us as his people. On the night before he died, as he gathered with his disciples for the Last Supper, Jesus prayed that we be one. At the very heart of the Eucharist is the gathering. We Gather With Difficult People This gathering however. is also extremely difficult. Eucharist calls us to gather with people who disagree with us - people we sometimes find difficult to be with. Plus, there is very little in our culture which supports community. Instead, we live in the times where values rocket individualism. We're told to look out for Number One. Our culture, it appears, often places an exaggerated emphasis on our own personal wants and feelings. Its not that those are unimportant, but it's just that they must be seen in the context of a bigger picture. At the Last Supper, we get a glimpse of the radical nature of the calling together of people very different from one another. The disciples were obviously very different personalities. The Gospels indicated they argued with one another at various times. But they were deeper differences than their personalities. The gathering included Simon the Zealot, who belonged to a group that is sworn to opposition to anyone affiliated with the Roman establishment whom they had sworn. Yet, they gathered together at table for this meal. In the same way at our gathering, our eyes must be opened, our hearts must believe that we might choose to believe that we are indeed brothers and sisters - that we are in this together. We Gather With Various Groups It is essential therefore, that all people be welcome at table with us. Whatever a person's family background, political party, personality, skin colour or whatever lifestyle, they must be welcome at table with us. We notice there are no walls in Church buildings to separate various groups. We do not have a place here for single parents and have a wall to separate them from senior citizens. It's not that we have the poor here and wealthy people over there. There's no walls in Church buildings to separate us because the diversity of the gathering is itself extremely important. We are called to more and more tear down those walls that divide us and to build up our unity. Maybe the only walls in any Church buildings be the ones that holds up the common roof over our heads. We Gather With All As Sisters And Brothers Notice that the words "I", "Me" or "Mine" never appear in the Lord's Prayer. St. Paul was so distraught by the lack of unity in the early Eucharist gatherings that he would tell his disciples that "unless they truly live as one family, he did not know what on earth they were celebrating". But it was not Eucharist. Given the size of many of our assemblies, it is sometimes impossible to know the names of each person in our gathering. But we can and must recognise those around us as our brothers and sisters. The sign of peace then is not the shaking of hands with people I happen to like because they think like me, but rather, a deliberate statement that even though I do not know your name, I embrace you as my sister, my brother. Because I follow the Master who gave his life that we might be One. That is the challenge of the gathering, for a gathering for Eucharist demands a lot from us. However, it is made even more difficult by the fact that our experiences of the Mass is less than ideal. What we actually experience at the pew is sometimes less that what we know it is not to be. We Gather Inspite Of Aggravations And Problems It is important that first we look at some of the aggravations, some of the problems of the gathering. You know the complains - there are too many changes, not enough changes, the homilies are boring, or the priest does not seem to get it, women are marginalised by their lack of roles, or by language which are not inclusive, we lose our sense of awe. What difference does Eucharist make? People are starving to death anyway! Are we just a bunch of hypocrites? Is there no passion? Where is the feeling? It's so boring and repetitive! I get so easily distracted by how people dress, or all that goes on up there. Why go to Church when I can just go pray in nature? Some of those are significant problems and real challenges for us. Week 2: The Presence Of The Risen Lord Celebrating The Presence Of The Risen Lord "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Mt. 28:20)) This promise of Christ never ceases to resound in the church as the fertile secret of her life and the wellspring of her hope. As the day of Resurrection, Sunday is not only the remembrance of a past event; it is a celebration of the living presence of the Risen Lord in the midst of his own people. Becoming Part Of The People Of God For this presence to be properly proclaimed and lived, it is not enough that the disciples of Christ pray individually and commemorate the death and Resurrection of Christ inwardly, in the secrecy of their hearts. Those who have received the grace of baptism are not saved as individuals alone, but as members of the Mystical Body, having become part of the People of God. Coming Together Called By The Risen Lord It is important therefore that they come together to express fully the very identity of the Church, the ecclesia, the assemble called together by the Risen Lord who offered his life "to reunite the scattered children of God" (Jn 11:52) Becoming One In Christ Lord They have become "one" in Christ (Gal 3:28) through the gift of the Spirit. This unity becomes visible when Christians gather together: it is then that they come to know vividly and to testify to the world that they are the people redeemed, drawn "from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Rev 5:9) Imaging The First Christian Community The assemble of Christ's disciples embodies from age to age the image of the first Christian community which Luke gives as an example in the Acts of the Apostles, when he recounts that the first baptised believers 'devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers' (Acts 2:42) Week 3: The Eucharistic Assembly The Eucharist Feeds And Forms The Church The Eucharist is not only a particularly intense expression of the reality of the Church's life, but also in a sense its 'fountain-head'. The Eucharist feeds and forms the Church: 'Because there in one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Cor 10:17). Because of this vital link with the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the mystery of the Church is savoured, proclaimed, and lived supremely in the Eucharist. The Eucharist Is At The Heart Of The Church's Life This ecclesial dimension intrinsic to the Eucharist is realised in every Eucharistic celebration. But it is expressed most especially on the day when the whole community comes together to commemorate the Lord's Resurrection. Significantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life". The Eucharist Reveals The Easter Experience At Sunday Mass, Christians relive with particular intensity the experience of the Apostles on the evening of Easter when the Risen Lord appeared to them as they were gathered together (Jn 20:19). In a sense, the People of God of all times were present in that small nucleus of disciples, the first fruits of the Church. Through their testimony, every generation of believers hears the greeting of Christ, rich with the messianic gift of peace, won by his blood and offered with his Spirit: "Peace be with you". The Eucharist Is Prefigured In The 7th Day Reappearance (Jn 20:26) can be seen as a radical prefiguring of the Christian community's practice of coming together every seven days, on "the Lord's Day" or Sunday, in order to profess faith in his Resurrection and to receive the blessing which he had promised: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (Jn 20:29) The Eucharist Is Connected With The Appearance Of The Risen Lord This close connection between the appearance of the Risen Lord and the Eucharist is suggested in the Gospel of Luke in the story of the two disciples of Emmaus, whom Christ approached and led to understand the Scriptures and then sat with them at table. They recognised him when he "took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them" (Jn 24:30). The gestures of Jesus in this account are his gestures at the Last Supper, with the clear allusion of the "breaking of bread", as the Eucharist was called by the first generation of Christians. Week 4: The Sunday Gathering A Manifestation Of The church - Pastor - Presbyters - People It is true that in itself, the Sunday Eucharist is no different from the Eucharist celebrated on other days, nor can it be separated from liturgical and sacramental life as a whole. By its very nature, the Eucharist is an epiphany of the Church; and this is most powerfully expressed when the diocesan community gathers in prayer with its pastor. "The Church appears with special clarity when the holy People of God, all of them are actively and fully sharing in the same liturgical celebrations - especially when it is the same Eucharist - sharing one prayer at one altar, at which the Bishop is presiding, surrounded by this presbyters and his ministers". A Communion Of The Church - Pastor - Presbyters - People This relationship with the Bishop and with the entire Church community is inherent in every Eucharist celebration, even when the Bishop does not preside, regardless of the day of the week on which it is celebrated. The mention of the Bishop in the Eucharistic Prayer is the indication of this. Celebration Of The Church - Solemnity - Obligatory, Community But because of its special solemnity and the obligatory presence of the community, and because it is celebrated "on the day when Christ conquered death and gave us a share in his immortal life", the Sunday Eucharist expresses with greater emphasis its inherent ecclesial dimension. A Pattern For Church Celebrations - Mystery - Community - Unity It becomes the paradigm for other Eucharist celebrations. Each community, gathering all its members for the "breaking of the bread", becomes the place where the mystery of the Church is concretely made present. In celebrating the Eucharist, the community opens itself to communion with the universal Church, imploring the Father to "remember the Church throughout the world" and make her grow in the unity of all faithful with the Pope and with the Pastors of the particular Churches, until love is brought to perfection. |