Around the Table

Christians within our Catholic tradition are prople of the Table. Today's Solemnity of Corpus Christi invites us to remember who we are and what we are about. Sunday after Sunday the Lord gathers us around His Table. That's the focus of Corpus Christi - we are a People called to share in the Body and Blood of Christ. In that sharing of broken bread and poured-out cup, we become what we share in. In Christ, before the Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become the Body of Christ for one another and for our world.

In the many celebrations of First Communion this year, I shared especially with our young children that we have a very large Eucharistic Table here at Christ the Redeemer. Not to be overly simple, the Table is large for we are very many people, called and gathered in our parish family. I also told the children that there is room for all of us, from many families, from many places, and with all our sameness and differences.

The continued joy of our Easter Season, recently completed with Pentecost, was the many believers who were initiated into the Body of Christ. Their initiation was their incorporation through Baptism and Confirmation into the very Body of Christ, the Church. The newly baptized and newly annointed in the Spirit were welcomed to full communion at the Lord's Table. They and we became the Body of Christ before the Father by the Power of the Spirit.

Corpus Christi might well serve to remind us that Christian Initiation through Baptism, Conformation, and Eucharist is to make one a member of the Body, the "Corpus" of the Christ. Joined in our common call, and in one faith, we are "incorporated" into, or made part of, the Body of Christ. This Solemnity of Corpus Christi reminds us that as we are fed and nourished by the Christ, we in turn become food and drink, broken and poured, for one another. Our own journey and call is the nery mission of Christ, which is to lay down our lives for one another.

Holy Thursday

An intense moment of the Easter mystery begins with Holy Thursday, when we as a community celebrate the Lord's Supper. In the supper, He gives us Himeslf as a living memorial. We are urged to remember the death and rising of the Lord. We do this with the words and action of Jesus, Himself. We take bread, bless it, break it, and share it among ourselves: Take and eat, for this is my body. And we take the cup, bless it, pour it out, and drink from a communion cup:

Take and drink, for this is the cup of my blood. We do, and we share who Christ makes us at His Table. We become what we do and what we share.

On this most holy of Thursdays, we engage in another ritual metaphor. We wash each other's feet. John's gospel, and the liturgy, remind us that as Jesus, the Lord and Master, has done, so we are to do. We are to serve the Body of Christ, we are to wash each other's feet, we are to give up ourselves to another.

Eucharist for Others

We are accustomed to view the Eucharist as very personal and intimate to each of us as communicant. Indeed, we eat and drink with the Lord and He is intimately present with us. Yet the Eucharist is not for our personal self alone. The broken bread and poured-ot cup is for the common good, the up-building of the Body of Christ, the Church.

While the breaking of bread and pouring out of the cup is invitational of the presence of the Lord among us, the washing of feet is clearly an action for other believers. We are called, in the example of the Lord Himself, to wash each other's feet, to serve one another, to feed and nurture each other. As Jesus, in His gift, was life for so many, so as the Body of Christ we are called to be life for all within the community and within our world.

Eucharist and Priesthood

Quite personally, this past week I have been able to recall a great gift which is not mine alone, but is for you as perishioners, for the Church, and for the world. June 3rd this past week, I celebrated thirtytwo years as a priest. That's a long time, and my priesthood has been intermingled with many communities around various tables, both within Chruches and in homes. I have been blessed to be priest for others.

Quickly on the heels of my ordination, the very next day I celebrated my First Mass in my home parish. That year, June 4th was the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. That was the challenge on my ministry -- to be the Body and Blood of Christ with other believers in the Church. I, even then, was bold enough to preach on that occassion. I, as always, preached without notes, but later recorded my thoughts on a large, yellow, legal pad. I still have those notes, and my memories of many deaths to life in the Lord. My priesthood has been about broken bread and the cup poured out with and for many, many people. In the Eucharist we continue to become the Body of Christ.

CDH