Christians Without Borders
Body and Blood of Christ
Readings:
* Deut.8:2-3, 14-16
* 1 Cor. 10:16-17
* John 6:51-59
Christians Without Borders
Pancakes And Jesus
A mother was preparing the family’s favourite Sunday morning breakfast - pancakes. Ryan, age 6, and Dan, age 4 began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Mom saw this as a “teachable moment.” “You know, boys, if Jesus was here, he would probably say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’”
Ryan turned to Dan, and with all the authority of an older brother, said, “Dan, you be Jesus.” I’m not sure if Dan decided to be Jesus or not. But it seems that all of us here are called, in some mysterious way, to take on the attitude and the heart of Jesus as we celebrate this feast of the Holy Eucharist. Dan and Ryan were talking about human physical hunger. Jesus is not. He is talking about a deeper hunger.
The Sacraments Make Demands
A wedding doesn’t make a marriage, a Baptism doesn’t make a Christian, and the Eucharist doesn’t make us into the Body of Christ. These statements sound like heresies, don’t they? But in fact, these assertions are just stating the obvious. The Sacraments don’t work in an automatic manner. If they did, then all we would need in the Church would be a bunch of robots, machines with no heart and no mind. But that’s not the way it is. God needs us to be involved.
Exchanging wedding vows means nothing, if nothing happens after the exchange. If the two people still live as if they were single, looking out only for their own selfish interests, then how can you call it a marriage? Married couples have pledged to form a community of love where they take care of each other in everything that matters in life. When their lives reflect what they said on their wedding day, then they are actually married. Otherwise, they are just living a lie, a pretence.
Building The Body
And so it is with the Eucharist. When we take the Body of Christ into ourselves, we are pledging to help build the Body of Christ in our world. If we take the Eucharist, and continue to ignore the needs of our brothers and sisters, then it would be better not to take the Eucharist. These aren’t harsh words. They’re just truthful words. Our lives need to be truthful, and if we have no interest in helping build up the human community, then we should not proclaim that we have such an interest.
And that’s what we do when we take the Eucharist. We are telling the Lord and the community that we urgently desire to be a part of a wider community that belongs to the Lord. We need to come to the Eucharist each week because it is so easy to forget that we are part of a larger reality than just our own family or circle of friends.
A Very Wide World
We are tempted to think that the only world that is real is the world we live in. After all, that’s the only world we really know in an intimate way. That is my day to day experience. My home, my family, my cat, my car, my neighbourhood, my school, my place of work and so on -- these are the realities that invade my consciousness each day. It takes a concerted and conscious effort to have a wider view of the world.
One of the reasons, among many, that the world is in such a mess today is that even nations have a narrow view of who they are. When a country thinks that it is the centre of the universe, then it is inevitable that trouble is going to arise. That nation will only be concerned with protecting it’s own interests, no matter what they cost. We know where that can lead.
Christians Without Borders
As members of the Body of Christ, we are called to be citizens of the universe. Many of you have heard of the group called, ‘Doctors Without Borders’. Well, we are ‘Christians Without Borders’. Each time we come to celebrate and take the Eucharist, we are affirming that we belong to the Body of Christ - a Body that is found everywhere in the world.
“We are the Body of Christ and we are connected. The Christian witness says that we are in physical, psychical, spiritual relationship with one another. We can plead for one another, we can pray for one another. We can offer up acts of courage, endurance, and sufferings for others. Why, we can even die, and somehow in the great mystery of life and love, it can benefit others.” (Timely Homilies, W. J. Bausch, p. 9).
When we learn to see differently, then life changes. No longer are we simply isolated individuals trying to get through life without too many troubles or roadblocks, trying to make the best of what at times seems a bad situation. As we move towards becoming Christians Without Borders, we are drawn into the mystery of belonging.
We need to recapture the mystery of the Eucharist just as we need to recapture the mystery of one another. Too many words, too many unexamined thoughts, lead us around mysteries instead of into them. May today’s feast lead us closer to our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Christ, closer to one another.