Your Heading Goes Here

You say, you want to find Me,

so that you can then surrender.

I say, you first must surrender,

                             so that you may find Me.

                                                                            "little john"
                                                                          8 December 2002

Is it I, by my efforts, or the fruits of God's grace responded to that I am able to say that "Yes", and come to so totally know, love, and serve God with my whole heart, soul, mind, body and spirit as Jesus showed us in His relationship with His Father, and seen also in the example of Mother Mary's total life response to her God and Son?

"Trust in the lord with all your heart,

on your own intelligence rely not;

In all your ways be mindful of him,

and he will make straight your paths."

At the Marmion Abbey, Aurora, Illinois, 8:30 am morning Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation, Saturday, 25 March 2006, celebrated by Fr. Christian, O.S.B., on this his religious name’s day, the following thoughts began to surface at the beginning of the offertory preparation as Fr. Nathaniel, O.S.B., set up for him to continue the Mass. These thoughts/words continued to percolate within from then until I woke up at this 3:00 am, Sunday, 26 March 2006, needing to go to the computer keyboard to attempt to let these thoughts/words out. Father God (Abba -dad, as we are told to call you, which you are indeed), Jesus Son and by graced-adoption brother, Holy Spirit the Loving, Life-giving personal power of the Holy Trinity, of whose family we now are by grace freely given and our “yes-ed” response, and with the intercession of you most humble and chosen servant, Mother of Jesus, Son of God, and again by God’s loving design and grace our Mother also through the words of His Son Jesus from the Cross before the completion of his sacrificial, salvific death for mankind, my friends for you and me personally, I again ask for the grace, and do so confidently because of Your Love and promises, to put these thoughts/words in a form as best I can to communicate what You would have us to know, learn and experience in living out the life You call and empower us to. Thank you!

Once again in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, words and thoughts connected in a meaningful way for me with a driving sense to try and communicate them with all God’s children. Like with the feast on which they conjoined, I was try to learn in a small way how to say “yes” as Jesus and Mary have showed us how to, and as Pope Paul VI had presented earlier on this feast that is truly a feast of both Jesus and Mary. The Annunciation in which Mary said “Yes” to the beginning of the coming of the Father’s Son and our Savior, Jesus’ life’s conception in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, moved God’s covenant promise to a new “here and now” level to receive and experience Emmanuel, the fruition of which we celebrate with the solemnity of Christmas. The road to our return to our loving Father had just begun enfleshed in a single, newly conceived cell. From His single cell to Christmas, He blessed and sanctified our same journey at every step then and throughout our life. At Christmas and our birth, He and we stepped into a new dimension of living. His would lead us to a yet new life beyond our comprehension, but attainable because of what He came to do by His Father’s will and the Holy Spirit’s empowering.

Jesus’ life was as Simeon foretold to Mary. In word and deed, to those with hearts and eyes open to the grace being given, Jesus, Son of Mary and Son of God, continually revealed who He was to the crowds, religious leaders (intelligentsia of the day), and to his disciples/apostles. As hungry and drawn as people were to his words and great signs, the poison set against Him by the Jewish “men of God” won the day casting Jesus into the “sign of contradiction” that by His mere presence, word and deed challenged their hearts and life styles, and yes do so ours today also. As Christians, people who have the Scriptures and/or are persons of history, we know where the story leads us. Before the beginning of the “end”, which for us as Christians is the beginning, we are at a meal- Jesus’ last meal celebrated with His special friends, the apostles including even Judas whom He had chosen to be one of these also. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”(John 14:15) Looking over the last three years from the vantage point at this meal, Jesus knows how this played out and will, and will yet happen with a loved one called Judas Iscariot. As a final act of love before His passion was to begin, He wished to celebrate the most sacred, power-filled religious event in the life of the Jewish community- the Passover, the commemoration in the Jewish understanding, that is the reliving as happening right in the present here and now of the past event of their being freed from the slavery, wickedness and suffering of living in Egypt away from their “true” promised land God had promised by covenant and given them.

The die is cast and events are in motion. In the garden, Jesus will soon say His “fiat/yes” to His Father’s will echoing again His mother’s at today’s Feast of the Annunciation, as He and she had done all their lives. We know where the rest of the story goes in Luke and elsewhere. But what just happened still continues to happen everyday at every consecration of the Eucharist, of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus - the Messiah/Christ, the Son of God born Son of Mary- “God really with us/Emmanuel”.

As Catholics, does it dawn on us, sink into our hearts, that every time we are at this unbloody, commemorative sacrifice of the Mass given to us at the Last Supper by Jesus’ command to the apostles and those they are to hand this onto by the authority given to them then, and to be done from then on until the coming of the Kingdom, specifically at the consecration of the bread and wine, we are witnessing a miracle every time it takes place as it happened at the Last Supper as Jesus, Son of God, intended Bread and wine becomes His Body and Blood, a sacrifice has taken place, and God is here on earth physically on our altars before us and to be received by us who are in “communion’ with His Church founded upon Peter and the apostles. After the priest, who stands in physically for Jesus the Messiah today, who receives His authority and power to complete the command He gave, just as the apostles He authorized and sent out spoke to cast demons, heal and bring back to life, this priest is Jesus’ mouthpiece now to say the Last Supper’s words He spoke to make this miracle happen. He says in the name of Jesus these words. Emmanuel, Jesus, under the appearance of bread and wine is now with us- really. Only openness to His graced faith allows Jesus now to open our eyes and hearts, if we let Him.

Do we really have the Jewish commemorative reality, of being here and now at the then sacrifice and death of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary. Yep!!! The Church has always taught and has always passed this on up to today and onward. This is what the Mass’ Eucharistic consecration “is”. This was another “come-together-moment” at the consecration at Mass twenty years ago now in 2006. The Old Testament speaks of Melchizedek, priest and king of Salem, who comes out with bread and wine to bless Abraham who was returning successfully from battle. Jesus used the bread and cup of wine in the Passover ritual to initiate the anticipation of the “about-to-be-sacrifice” establishing the new covenant on the cross, leaving and commanding us to commemorate this crucifixion and death by what He said and gave us at the Last Supper Passover meal. Today we simply refer to this as the Eucharistic consecration.

Okay… Jesus said it, the Church confirmed it through the apostles and so on. If Jesus said it and also the Church, their words are true and good-I believed with a struggle. However, in my thoughts, it just didn’t make sense. A sacrifice with bread and wine, that is not what happened in the Old Testament. Hey, look what was going to happen in the story of Abraham and Isaac, and the end sacrifice with the ram. Now there’s a Jewish sacrifice!! It was not bread and wine.

Again at Mass, specifically at the Eucharistic consecration, there was a gift of a drawing together of a host of miscellaneous prior readings and thoughts. The Hebrew words Jesus used had been defined. The word in His tongue used at the Last Supper for body had two meanings depending on the context. Body meant exactly that, the physical being, but it also was used to mean the person, all of who one is. Blood likewise had two usages. It could mean the red blood we cherish to keep inside of us. Also and very much connected, blood was used to mean life, as without it we do cease to live. By God’s grace, a veil was lifted. Was there/is there a commemorative sacrifice in the Jewish sense and as being really at Calvary? Jesus says, “This is my body”. The bread/host becomes by the authority of his words as Son of God, really His Body, His person, all that He is. Because of His resurrection, it is His glorified body now which is really a body that can be touched and contain food as He showed us, and dare say multiplied also now for us to truly eat as food as He gave us- commands us. Jesus says, “This is my blood”. The wine becomes his blood indeed, glorified, his life for us to drink in, again as He commands us. A sacrifice? When Jesus first changed the bread into His body, we have the person of Jesus and his body. Then Jesus changed the wine into His life, His blood. The context of the Passover does gives significant meaning and background, however, by the very merit of what He spoke in itself, in the order He spoke the words a sacrifice has taken place. When the blood is separated from the body, when life is separate from the person, that which is/was deemed necessary for a Jewish sacrifice to take place has happened. The Eucharistic consecration is a par excellence commemoration of the sacrifice on Calvary. We are really and literally reliving the crucifixion, and it is powerfully remembered in the glorified body of Christ as an action given to us at the Last Supper. Christ is not crucified again, but His crucifixion is repeatedly remembered by Jesus’ design until the end of time.

This brings us to the opening title, “Eucharistic Consecration: 40 seconds’ Salvific History Commemoration”. At the Annunciation, salvation and the covenant moved to a new level- Emmanuel is now among us and in nine months will be literally seen and touched by those around him. God’s Son as truly man is now among us as promised. WOW! Salvation history from the Annunciation (today’s feast), to the crucifixion at Calvary and Jesus’ glorious resurrection/glorious body is also repeated and commemorated at the same Eucharistic consecration each time the consecration is said.

“This is my Body.” The Annunciation is commemorated. Jesus is so to speak born amongst us, commemorating/celebrating His conception and span of life. “This is my blood.” The sacrifice and Calvary is commemorated, but also because it is the glorified Jesus we adore on the altar of sacrifice and prepare to receive, the Resurrection is also commemorated. I timed Fr. Christian’s prayer of consecration and realized he reverently covered the commemoration of Jesus’ sacrifice and salvation history in 40 seconds as the thoughts/words at the beginning of the Offertory continued to percolate to and through the Eucharistic consecration of the bread and wine.

It is almost 9:00 am now, which tells you how badly I type and why I needed the opening prayer to attempt this sharing. I hope these words may be of benefit to others and what may be extended in other’s meditation. You may find something and need to say “Wait a minute, we need to talk.” I am very open. As in the opening prayer, I tried to do my best to communicate, but I have no boldness to claim I am totally on the mark and may be in need of teaching/correction. If that is the case, in the name of Jesus, do me the blessing.