Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

When I was first ordained and moved to California twenty-three years ago, a couple of parishioners from my first parish assignment met me at LAX. They were both actively involved as ministry leaders in the parish, and gradually we got to know each other well. In a certain sense, they ‘adopted’ me, and I ‘adopted’ them. I was roughly the same age as their own children, and as time passed I came to be invited to family events and celebrations, and I grew to really enjoy hanging out with my ‘new family’. The “Matriarch” of the family, my friend’s mother, always presided over such family gatherings. When we’d gather, everyone brought something to share at the table and Grandma Riba’s contribution was the potato salad. The potato salad was really awesome, and we always made a point of fussing with Grandma Riba over it. She would proudly explain how simple it was to make, really, and would go on and on about how good it was. The unspoken part of the story is that every time she’d bring the bowl of potato salad, it would be spirited away and ‘doctored’. Pickles, eggs, mayo, and various other ingredients were added to supplement the dish. It was always made to taste great. It was the in-family joke and everyone was complicit in it. Grandma Riba passed away a few years ago, but still when we gather, we talk about her potato salad and we smile with the memories of her presence.

 In a sense, this is a good analogy for Eucharist. Eucharist gathers the family of faith together, and we enter into the memorials of what has been over and over again. The reality of what was remains with us, is present to us. Our “re-membering”, our bringing together once again the realities of what was allows us to enter into the realities of that moment in such a way that we are all fed and nurtured, not just physically, but also spiritually. We are nourished both in body and in soul.

 The truth is that the realities of Jesus’ Eucharist linger with us, long after he broke the bread, poured the cup and shared them with his disciples. The deep truth is that even after we receive Eucharist ourselves, the realities of it remain with us, nourishing and nurturing us. As we participate in the sacred and sacrificial meal, we offer ourselves in service of all that Jesus himself was about. In our reaching into the Memorial for the sustenance of our own bodies and souls, we are entering into the life and ministry of Jesus, and his eating and sleeping, his healing and forgiving, his teaching and praying become the pattern of our eating and sleeping, of our healing and forgiving, of our teaching and praying. Well… on a good day, at least.

 St. Paul reminds us that when we share in the one bread and the one cup, we are ourselves brought deeper into the mystery that makes us one. Our sharing in Eucharist together is about our being one family of faith, and as family we are motivated to live that faith in such a way as the very life and mission of our one Lord continues to live and have life because of our efforts in his name. When we share communion with one another, we commit to being for others who Jesus is for the world. We commit to justice, mercy and love. We commit to working for a better life not only for ourselves, but more for those others around us whom we meet who are in need of help in finding wholeness in their lives. People sometimes wonder why we as a Church get involved in so many different causes and our answer should be grounded in our commitment to Eucharist, to our commitment to carry on the mission and ministry of Jesus in our own day. When we do this well, we find our own sense of being more and more complete. When we fail to live up to our own hopes and expectations, we often find ourselves feeling “less than”. It’s a good reminder of the teaching of St. Augustine on Eucharist (Sermon 272):

“So how can bread be his body? And what about the cup? How can it be his blood? My friends, these realities are called sacraments because in them one thing is seen, while another is grasped. What is seen is a mere physical likeness; what is grasped bears spiritual fruit. So now, if you want to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle Paul speaking to the faithful: ‘You are the body of Christ, member for member.’ [1 Cor. 12.27] If you, therefore, are Christ's body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord's table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! You are saying ‘Amen’ to what you are: your response is a personal signature, affirming your faith. When you hear ‘The body of Christ’, you reply ‘Amen.’ Be a member of Christ's body, then, so that your ‘Amen’ may ring true! ...Be what you see; receive what you are.”