The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
FRAGMENTS IN A BASKET
This is the Commemoration of the Pentecost upon the Twelve in the Upper Room by the Holy Spirit. Jesus has Ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father with the Holy Spirit. He sent the Holy Spirit upon us in Pentecost, but he also sends the Holy Spirit to us in the new Pentecost, certainly at this Feast of the Church Universal, but also to each of us each time two or three are gathered in His name.
What follows is my Lectio Divina on Pentecost but also on the profession of faith in Christ Jesus of Vanessa Unglaub, a fellow witness to the Resurrection and, along with her husband George Unglaub, are fellow travelers in our quest to have in us the mind of Christ Jesus.
LIFTING UP THE BASKET WITH OURSELVES AS FRAGMENTS
Our lives are like fragments of bread, broken and consumed to sustain life. But this is no ordinary bread, it is the very body and blood of Christ, the thanksgiving sacrifice to the Father to give all glory and honor, now and forever.
The problem with humans, as it was with Adam and Eve, is that we cannot approach the Father alone. Christ had to become human for us to be able to claim adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. No one sees the Father, only the Son, or anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Christ wants us to continue to give glory to the Father, just as he did (John 17). The Resurrection is the proof that Christ is Son of God, Savior. The Ascension is proof that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, our translator, our mediator with the Father, so that we can approach him without frying all our neurons. Pentecost is the gift of God the Holy Spirit to us so that, seeing we can see, hearing we can hear. Pentecost ratifies the Eucharist, the Mystery of Faith of the Universal Church, so that we catch a glimpse of Heaven, but it is still foggy. Eucharist is the gift of the person of Christ to the Father.
All glory and honor are yours, forever, Almighty Father, through, with and in Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen, This is the Eucharistic prayer, the perfect prayer because it is Jesus himself as our brother, giving himself once again through his passion, death and resurrection in a timeless act of love. We simply tag along each time we attend Eucharist. We don’t deserve any of this and we are so blessed for Christ to have chosen us before time began.
We approach Eucharist with hearts and minds lifted up to the Father with our praise and glory. By ourselves, this is nice but not good enough. It is in the Eucharist, during the offering of gifts when the priest rises up the basket and raises up the cup, that we place our broken fragments of our life on it. The basket is Christ, the cup of salvation is Christ. We ask the Father to accepted our lives with our sinfulness, our lack of faith sometimes, our failure to love as Christ loves us, as we are.
In the consecration, this basket with each of us as fragments, join with the real presence of Christ to proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes again in glory. These gifts are also lifted up to the Father, but with one difference. It is our fragments with the Body of Christ, the Real Presence of Jesus, as gift to the Father one more time. Adam and Eve are justified by this and so are we. In the Communion, also named Thanksgiving or Eucharist, we share the Body and Blood of Christ in us. We share the same Pentecost as did the Apostles, we share the blood of the early martyrs as gifts of love, we are no longer a bunch of fragments but one loaf, one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism.
St. Paul says we see through a glass darkly but just the little we see at the Eucharist is worth the price of our life. Christ thought is was worth the price of his.
Congratulations of the beginning of the next step of what may be many steps to convert your heart to be more like Christ. You have not chosen me, says Christ, I have chosen you.
Praise be the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen and Amen. –Cistercian Doxology
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