Bound in Love

Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Do you think Peter really understood what he said? It’s a true statement, but like Peter we do not really know the full truth of that statement. It’s something we cannot fully define, but it’s full of meaning we can explore.

Meaning speaks to the purpose of a thing, its significance, even its worthiness. Meaning is dynamic, and we can live and grow in meaning as we explore it.

The growth of our relationship with the Son of the Living God is what gives meaning to our lives as Christian disciples. We come to realize we cannot put a precise definition on God. Paul’s letter to the Romans today remarks on this when he says, “How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!” So, while we cannot completely define Him, we can rest in Him and pray on the meaning of Him.

Consider the sacramental life that we live as Catholics. The sacraments can challenge us because they make claims we cannot really test using modern scientific methods. But that doesn’t make them less true. And eventually they are not challenges at all; they are invitations to take our relationship with the Son of the Living God to a higher level. As Fr. Mike Schmitz likes to say on his podcasts, it’s not about information as much as it is about transformation.

The most frequently received sacraments are the sacrament of the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation. These are invitations to transformation. When I go into the confessional for the sacrament of reconciliation, do I accept the absolution Christ offers, or do I focus on the man standing in the person of Christ? Does my behavior over time change with regard to awareness of sin and the activity of the tempter?

When we explore the meaning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are offered a similar transformation. In this year of Eucharistic renewal I can ask myself if I really believe this wafer is now the body of Christ? Am I really in communion when I come to receive Holy Communion?

These are invitations from the Lord to consider the meaning of our faith and respond with greater depth. Every “challenge” is an invitation to go further into our faith and higher up the mountain of God in our lives. God never turns his back on us; he always offers more. More purpose, more significance, more reason to continue the transformation of our lives.

As many of you know, I was raised as an Episcopalian and came into the Catholic Church as an adult. Episcopalians reject the idea of doctrine, so everyone can pretty much do what they want. I did not know the term “concupiscence,” but it turned out what I wanted was to have a party and not suffer any bad consequences. But the Son of the Living God wanted more for me, and eventually I came into the Catholic Church. RCIA classes were exposing me to a lot of information in a short time, and I took a lot of it on faith and did what I was told. So when it came to my first Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil, I did what everybody around me did.

Living as a Catholic, I grew a great deal in my knowledge. My head was full of facts and definitions. I read about the Last Supper and the walk to Emmaus, and I learned that only the priest is “permitted” to pick Him up because during the Mass the priest acts in persona Christi and repeats the sequence we see in the Feeding of the 5000, the Last Supper, and the Walk to Emmaus: he takes, he blesses, he breaks, he gives. But I also grew in meaning. I read the creation story in Genesis, and I saw how God said something and it was so. “Let there be light” and there was light. God actually “spoke” creation into existence from nothing. It confirmed in me an appreciation for the power of the word of God.

When I thought of that power, then it made sense that the priest standing in the person of Christ at the altar during the liturgy of the Eucharist could by his words change the wafer of bread into the body of Christ. And I knew enough of the gospels to know that he was repeating the words Jesus gave his apostles at the Last Supper when he instituted the priesthood.

He does something very similar in the confessional when he speaks words of absolution, and my sins are forgiven. Again, he is using the powers given to the priesthood by Jesus before his ascension to his heavenly throne. In a few minutes, we will all say the Centurion’s words that “we are not worthy for him to enter under our roof,” but I remember the preamble: the centurion was familiar with the power of verbal commands and did not need Jesus to move physically but trusted in the Word of God.

The meaning of the eucharist deepened for me. I understood that what I was receiving was truly “corpus Christi,” the body of Christ. And I embraced the truth that every particle was the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus.

At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, we say “Amen.” In that word, we confess the truth of what we just heard and saw. The Eucharistic Amen is an emphatic statement of faith.

As the information expanded, some transformation followed. If that’s really Jesus and not just a symbol, then at Holy Communion I am taking into my sinful body the sinless Son of the Living God. How should I approach and receive Him? I want it to reflect my belief in his Presence. I also want it to reflect my place in our relationship: he is my Lord and my God. And I am his servant and his child.

Eventually, I became convinced I should receive him as a little child receives food. Parents, remember how you fed your little ones. You spooned up some peas and stuck them in your child’s mouth. Well, I am to approach God as a little child, so I come with my eyes closed and my mouth open. It is a physical connection to my faith in the Real Presence. In receiving this way, I am certain that no particle of Jesus’ body will be lost.

And when I come forward from the pews, I receive kneeling because that, too, is a physical connection to my relationship with my Lord and my God. We have to curtsy to the Queen of England but not kneel to the Lord of All? That makes no sense to me. The Eucharist is a gift that I can never deserve; and my bodily posture communicates that I receive the gift gratefully and with humility.

This has been my personal walk to Emmaus: over a long time I had the Scriptures opened to me by authentic teachers. Unlike my old Episcopalian community, the Catholic Church does have doctrines, teachings it knows to be true and from the Son of the Living God. Very few of those teachings are of the “or else” kind. Most are invitations to take our relationship with Him further in and higher up.

He will, of course, accept me picking the host out of my own hand, but he invites me to think deeper and respond deeper.

In the gospel today, Peter blurts out the truth. Frankly, he sounds a little goofy. He does not sound cool or sophisticated. Truth is like that. St. Paul called himself a “fool for Christ” (1 Cor 4:6). The invitation is to be more like Peter and Paul. Blurt out the Truth. Dare to be uncool. Go further in and higher up. Go deeper.

In this year of Eucharist renewal, may we all accept the reality – the Truth – that the Mass is our participation in His sacrifice. May we accept the Truth that the host is no longer bread but Him. May we dare to be intimate, dare to be uncool, dare to be a fool for Christ as we come forward at Holy Communion. May we dare to open our mouth and receive Jesus directly. May we dare to receive Him kneeling in adoration.

Dare to go further in and higher up. Dare to let Him transform you.