A 10th Sunday after Pentecoase Thought To Bring To Holy Communion

If we are in the state of grace and receive Holy Communion on this 10th Sunday after Pentecost, we might consider something Fr. Eugene Boylan has given us. He will focus on union with Christ.

Before considering Father's words, let's cleanse ourselves of any thought that "union" with Our Lord is reserved for saints and mystics. We may understandably think this or feel this way, but it's an error we need to expunge from our thinking.

Consider the reality of Holy Communion. The host we receive is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a representation or symbol. One cannot read the Gospels and not get this. We won't try to prove it here today, but it's essential Catholic thinking. 

For some reason, Protestants have rejected this. Sure, there are degrees of understanding of what the "bread and wine" represents. Some apparently even hold something close to our Catholic understanding. But all fall short of what we know to be the truth.

Catholics know the bread and wine no longer exists. They still appear as bread and wine, but they have been changed in the hands and by the words of the priest: This is My Body - This is My Blood. There's no mistaking what these words mean: IS - not "represents."

Our Lord gave to His Apostles the power to change bread and wine into His Body and Blood. And through them, this power has been transmitted for over two millennia to our bishops and priests. If Our Lord imparted this power, surely our reception of Holy Communion can't be dismissed as merely some ritual act we perform when we receive Communion. 

The awesome reality of the Eucharist virtually "screams" that receiving Our Lord's Body and Blood unites us to Him both spiritually and physically. And while this remains a mystery that we can't adequately explain or perhaps fully understand with our intellect, that does not change the reality.

All of us can and should desire union with Our Lord, just as the saints and mystics did.  

So with that clumsy effort to prepare us, let's please read Father's words and take them to heart. He'll do a better job of showing us the way and the why to union with Our Lord. 

    “All love demands union; the more ardent the love, the more complete the union it seeks. The love of our Lord for us is no exception. As St. John Chrysostom tells us, our Lord instituted the Blessed Eucharist so that we might become one entity with Himself, united to Him as the head is united to the body, as food is united to one that consumes it, ‘for this is the desire of the ardent lovers.’…St. Paul cites the marriage union as a symbol and shadow of the still more intimate union of Christ with His Church: they shall be two in one flesh: and St. John tells us of the repeated prayer for union that our Lord uttered at the Last Supper when He instituted the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist, which very sacrament is His means of effecting that union…There must be no limit to our confidence in the power of this divine lover. He is our Creator, and the spiritual life is a re-creation. Our sins and our shortcomings have interfered with that re-creation, but here in Holy Communion we have our Creator, our Prototype, coming to unite us to Himself, full of a merciful love and an ardent desire that we may have life and have it more abundantly. There is nothing He cannot do – for He is God, and there is nothing He will not do – for He is our Savior, to make us men after His own Heart’s desire, if we put no obstacle in His way. He is completely at our disposal!” (Fr. Eugene Boylan, O.C.S.O.)
 

Happy 10th Sunday after Pentecost!