Unity and Fellowship
by Fr. Erasto Fernandez
In the explanation given here, for sake of clarity we shall follow the basic outline of the Eucharistic celebration itself. There are, of course, different approaches available. For instance, we could take the four basic Eucharistic attitudes and work to deepen them in ourselves. The four attitudes could be linked with the four Eucharistic verbs found in the Institution Narrative: "On the night before he suffered, Jesus took the bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples saying: 'Take and eat, this is My body which is given for you!'" Being just four, it becomes easy to check how far we have grown in appropriating these gifts and talents, of taking responsibility for who we are and have made of ourselves, of thanking and praising God in every situation, of breaking our will in obedience to God's will and finally in sharing all our blessings with anyone in need. However, we choose a simpler approach and will explain it as we go along.
If priests/catechists wish to use this material to instruct, it would be good if just one aspect is taken for each session. The explanation could be interspersed with one's own examples and applications suited to the audience. What matters is that the people understand what it means in practice to allow the Eucharist to shape their lives and are inspired to actually go out and do something concrete and effective.
Gathering in Christ
The Eucharist begins with the Entrance rite which is basically a gathering together of those who in baptism have accepted Christ as their head. So, understandably the key objective of the Entrance rite is to consciously keep Jesus as the centre of the gathering and its celebration. There are five (could be seen as six also) symbols of the Risen Lord that are given prominence in this Entrance rite to encourage the Christians gathered for Eucharist to remember to place Jesus as the centre of all that is going to happen as they Eucharist.
As the entrance procession wends its way through the assembly, the people rise to greet the Celebrant as they sing the Entrance Song. In the presiding Celebrant who is given special attention in this procession, we have the first living symbol of the Risen Lord - one which all would easily recognize and accept. Even though every priest certainly has his own idiosyncrasies and foibles, yet these are eclipsed at the Eucharist by his role as President of the worshipping assembly. The very garments he uses for the occasion, strange as they appear in our day and age, would help people realize that he stands before them not in his own name, but in the name of Christ. The priest too would do well to remember that during the Eucharist particularly, he represents Christ, and so should work to make Jesus more clearly visible to his people.
The Celebrant is accompanied by the Cross and candle bearers - both Cross and Light are powerful symbols of Christ and his redemptive work. For the early Christians the Cross was not a reminder of the death of Christ so much as a powerful symbol of his triumph over sin and death as the risen Lord. In those early days of the Church's history, the Christians even studded their crosses with precious stones making them more evidently symbols of the triumphant resurrection. That light (lighted candles) evokes the resurrection needs no emphasis because all know that the light of Easter (the great paschal candle) outshines the darkness and gloom of Good Friday.
Once he reaches the sanctuary, the Celebrant venerates the altar either with a devout kiss or with the Indian gesture of reverence. Through this he reminds the assembly that the altar stands for Christ, especially for the gift he made of himself on the Cross, surrendering himself in the name of all mankind to the Father out of love and obedience. The relics of martyrs are usually embedded in the altar - further reminding the assembly that it is only through the suffering and death shared with Jesus that one rises to the possibility of praising and thanking God in Eucharist.
The Celebrant next signs himself with the sign of the Cross while all the faithful too do the same. This is the fourth symbol reminding us that as Christians we have chosen to make Jesus the centre of our lives so that everything we think and will and do is guided by Christ's one command of love. He next greets the assembly in the name of Christ, using a Scriptural quotation, thus reminding all that they are one in Christ. For, 'where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst' assures the Risen Lord.
Christ, Centre of Christian Living
Through the use of these different symbols, the Church reminds us that Jesus the Risen Lord who has conquered sin and death and its evil effects of division and disunity, is the centre of all Christian living. The fact that we can come together as one body to pray and worship is a sign that the poisonous and divisive root of sin has been taken away from among us. Sin is what divides: it alienates people from God, from one another, from nature and also from themselves.
It is this separation, cutting oneself off from the other, so prominent among the Pharisees in the Old Testament that Jesus came to take away through his dying-rising. The Pharisees believed that as representatives of God, the all-holy One, they had to keep aloof from the rest of the crowd who were sinners. Especially would they abhor eating at table with such sinners! So, in the name of God, the Pharisees and leaders of the people separated themselves from sinners, lest they be tainted and God's infinite holiness be defiled. Thus, unity and oneness in Jesus' earthly ministry and later particularly at the Eucharist, is a sign of the newness and redemption that Jesus brought us. He came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. From the time of the coming of Jesus sinners are acceptable to the Father and as a sign of this Jesus freely ate and drank with tax-collectors and sinners. No one was to be excluded from God's banqueting table on the basis of moral uprightness or lack of it. If some choose to remain absent at this Table it is because they exclude themselves by personal choice.
What is a 'Centre'?
The following anecdote provides a very vivid picture of what it means to have something or someone as the centre of one's life. This story belongs to January of 2001, when north Gujerat was rocked by a severe earthquake. The impact of the earthquake was so severe that even recently constructed buildings were collapsing like a house of cards. Yet, an eye-witness reports that as he himself hurried down the stairs fleeing for safety, he could not but stop and stare at a Gujerati gentleman in his flat with its front door ajar. The man was standing before his cupboard with arms outstretched as if to protect it from falling - while the entire building was rocking and crumbling. It seems evident that he had all his treasures stashed away in that cupboard! His refusal to flee to save his very life but choosing instead to protect his cupboard full of possessions is a loud and bold statement that for him his material possessions were far more important than life itself. Were not his possessions the centre of his life, then? With this picture in mind, could we say that this is the way we regard Jesus in our practical life? In a moment of crisis, would we rather lose our lives than let Jesus and his kingdom suffer any harm because of us? This is the kind of attitude that our wholehearted participation in the Entrance rite should and will produce in us over the years. For his sake we would want to preserve the unity and fellowship of the Christian community in our midst at all costs.
Eucharistic Attitudes
So, if after celebrating Eucharist regularly, we find ourselves spontaneously and increasingly appreciating this value of togetherness and unity and eagerly fostering it in our daily activity, we can be sure that we are living this value of the Eucharist that we celebrate. That there is no dearth of opportunities to foster unity and fellowship in our daily situations needs no proof. We find opportunities for this in our own homes, especially in the daily little misunderstandings that crop up even without our wanting them. Our place of work is another fruitful area where this value can be practiced quite effortlessly. It is helpful to point out some practical ways how this can be done: in an office situation, it is so easy to indulge in 'tale-bearing' or reporting on the faults or limitations of others, thus causing untold confusion and 'bad blood' among co-workers. Of course, this is often sparked off by one's desire to gain the attention and goodwill of the higher-ups, especially in view of financial benefits. However, where our frequent celebrations of Eucharist are fruitful, they would make us deeply sensitive to the needs of others seeing them as our brothers and sisters. We would realize that what harms them, harms us as well - for are we not but one body in Christ?
In our day, we have become keenly conscious of the fact that as a human family, we live in a global village. No one can doubt the inter-relatedness of everything in the universe. The by-now famous 'butterfly-effect' is well-known to all: how when a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the globe, it creates major changes in the eco-system half a world away. The global network or internet has shrunk the world of communications even further than one could ever imagine. The communications media too brings all parts of the world closer together. When all this is happening around us, shouldn't we be able to gather together for Eucharist as a much closer-knit family, and also express that closeness all through the day or week?
Further, the Entrance rite trains us to always keep Christ at the centre of all our activity. Taking the example given above, if Christ is seen clearly to be among those working in a particular office, then evidently un-Christian divisive behaviour would be totally eliminated. Instead what would be visible is a genuine interest in the other, a working together for the benefit of all, a readiness to help one another in times of difficulty or stress, even without waiting to be asked for this help. Readiness to break of one's self, to die to one's own gain for the sake of the other would stand out in a Christian or Eucharistic atmosphere. Such a work place would not only radiate an ambience of peace, joy and fraternal cooperation, but would also be highly effective and productive - since all would work together towards the same goal.
Following on the heels of unity would be equality - an attitude which makes us look on all people as equally children of God, loved and cherished by him and equally the object of Christ's love as he sacrificed himself on the Cross. Once this truth is acceptable, there would be no division or discrimination on the basis of male and female, of people of one nationality as against those of another; the fair and the dark-skinned, people speaking a variety of languages, with different backgrounds and cultures - all would be regarded and accepted as equal. No superiority- inferiority divide here!
Applications of this truth could also be made regarding ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue. And what about efforts that should be made to bring back to the fold the 'lost sheep'- those thousands who have left the Church for one reason or another? However, when Christians do engage in this kind of mission at all, it would be on a personal basis and perhaps without any conscious thought that they are engaging in dialogue with other faiths or helping the straying ones to regain their faith in Jesus. They would do all this as a simple expression of their gratitude to Christ who has done so much for them. Jesus is always the centre of their lives in every aspect! Their very effort to promote unity in all situations will necessarily proclaim Christ's kingdom of love, justice and peace. Wasn't it said of the early Christians: 'See how these Christians love one another?' Acts 4:32-35 reminds us that in the ideal Christian community, the members are of one mind and heart, with no one claiming anything as their very personal property. Their readiness to share all their gifts and blessings with others resulted in there being not a single needy person among them!
Again, caught up with the joy of coming together with others, we gradually develop the sense that we are no longer aliens or strangers, but members of the household of God. We would more spontaneously and persistently see ourselves as children of God all through the day. What a difference this attitude would make when we can habitually see ourselves and others as very specially loved children of God. This attitude would eliminate some of the most vexing problems in any human community, be it family or otherwise: comparison with others, envy and jealousy, the desire to pull others down in the hope that this would raise us up in the estimation of others, a growing unconcern regarding what others think or say about us, because we are convinced of God's appreciation of and love for us. Another offshoot of this attitude is that we learn to genuinely rejoice over the good we see in others.
Seeing ourselves as part of a large family extending even world-wide, we would gradually shed our obsessive preoccupation with the Self. We would realize that we are not the centre of the universe nor are we the only ones whom God has blessed. That approach would further increase our fundamental humility enabling us to take our proper place not only with respect to other people, but also in connection with the rest of the universe. In our day-to-day dealings with others, we would not spontaneously see ourselves as cut off from others, but would be more 'people-friendly' wherever we are. It would be no hassle for us to strike up a conversation with any particular person or group, because we basically see ourselves as one with all people. When others take advantage of our openness that would not disturb us overmuch as we realize that what matters is our inner attitude - we would freely let ourselves be despoiled as long as we can promote the larger blessing of seeing ourselves as one with all people.
The proper attitude at the Entrance rite would further make us deeply convinced that with Jesus as the centre of our lives we have nothing to fear. For, "if God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:31-39).
There are several other qualities flowing from a meaningful celebration of the Entrance rite. The reader is encouraged to stop and spell out some of these more evident to him. The Eucharist has the power to create communities like these and we would see many more such united and happy Christian communities if we could only bring out the full potential of the Entrance rite. All we need to do is to direct conscious effort to this area over a certain period of time until it becomes habitual. We recall, therefore, that when we begin the Eucharist, we rally round Jesus our Saviour and enter into the Church with him leading us - he goes ahead of us, while we follow as one 'body!' As we live the rest of our lives, we seek to keep him as the centre or the head of the body with our eyes and hearts fixed on him. Where he leads, we follow joyously and enthusiastically.
Summing up all these positive attitudes emanating from a proper celebration of the Entrance rite, we have:
- Unity, equality, ecumenism, inter-faith dialogue; we consciously eliminate all division and disunity, superiority and snobbishness.
- Keeping Christ as the centre of all our activity.
- Openness towards all people; being people-friendly.
- Readiness to share our blessings with all others - anyone who is in need.
- Accepting our place in the order of things around us, a fundamental humility.
- Fearlessness because Jesus is with us, within us and around us!
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Copyright © Fr. Erasto Fernandez. All rights reserved.
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