The Eucharist - Our Response: Deepened Faith
by Fr. Erasto Fernandez
Most people imagine that the Responsorial Psalm which follows the first reading is our 'response' to God's Word in the Eucharist. Yet, a careful scrutiny of the psalm texts will reveal that it is only a meditation on the key truth revealed in the reading. In expanding on this truth, the psalm allows us time to assimilate it and let it produce its own special effects in our lives. The real response to the Word comes after the entire Eucharistic proclamation which really ends with the homily.
Real Response: Faith
We have noted in the previous article that by means of the proclaimed Word, God reveals his inner nature which is totally unknowable. "As far as the east is from the west, so different are my thoughts from your thoughts," God reminds us through Isaiah. And so frequently we feel that God's Word seems to be 'too good to be true', it seems almost unbelievable. Thus, the first response God asks of us is that we accept his Word, not as we would accept any human word which we can test and prove, but as God's Word spoken out of love and which is unfailingly true! Faith is what enables us to accept God's Word as true, simply because He utters it. We may not understand it fully, nor be able to verify it, yet since it is God who speaks it, we accept it as true.
The implications of this four our daily Christian living are tremendous, for the test of our believing God's Word is that we are ready to act on it, to make it the springboard of effective changes in our life-style. How do we react when God says to us: "I will never forget you… Even if a mother forgets the child of her womb, yet I will never forget you. I have carved your name on the palm of my hands?" Or again, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to grant you the kingdom." "I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends…" "Beloved, we are God's children now…" We could go on heaping text after text that speaks in the same strain. Besides, there are other passages that contain the same message but in indirect or allegorical ways. The challenge before us is to accept all this as true - particularly that God is madly in love with us, sinners as we are!
Most people find it difficult to believe these statements because of the deep consciousness they have of their own sinfulness. They instinctively feel that sinfulness cannot go hand in hand with God's love and friendship. They believe that they would somehow have to be cleansed first and prove their worthiness, only then would God be able to love them. They fail to see that whatever there is of worth within human beings comes ultimately from God himself and is his sheer gift. So, God loves in us what he himself has gifted to us, even if we have disfigured it quite a bit. Besides, God sees more what we can and ought to be, not exactly what we are or have made ourselves. He constantly beckons us to become more and more clearly what he wishes us to be - radiant images of his own infinite love.
Hardness of Heart
This inability to accept God's word for what it says is characteristic not just of people of our age. Right from the First Alliance between God and mankind, people found it difficult to take God's word seriously. The classic example we have is that of Saul chosen to be the first king of Israel. When Samuel broke the good news of God's choice to him as the first candidate, all he could say is: "I am only a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel, and my family is the humblest of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. Why then have you spoken to me in this way?" He never really accepted God's choice of him as king; he could not put his full trust in Him, especially as he set out on his military expeditions. This landed him into endless problems, till finally God rejected him (or rather, accepted Saul's own rejection of himself) and chose another person, 'according to his own heart.' And David, the second choice was characterized by the fact that he always 'consulted Yahweh' and did what was pleasing in his sight. David too was 'the least' in his family so much so that his father Jesse even forgot about him when lining up all his sons before Samuel. We do not mean to suggest that David did not have his failings, especially in his relationships with women. Yet, as far as being an instrument in God's hands for the benefit of his people, he was second to none in Israel.
Coming to the Second Alliance, we see that several among the Jews similarly hardened their hearts and just would not believe the message of Jesus. This concerned mainly Jesus' forgiveness of sinners, his eating and drinking with them at table - in short his compassion for those who were like sheep without a shepherd. In other words, the Jews and particularly the Scribes and Pharisees, just could not accept that God would associate so closely with sinners. The Apostles too were 'hard of heart' or obtuse when they could not catch the meaning of the feeding of the five thousand - that Jesus was truly the Son of God and shared his concern for his people as they wandered through the desert. The outstanding example of extreme hardness of heart of course, is Judas who, in spite of being warned so often, still persisted in betraying the Son of God - and that too with a kiss, the supreme gesture of friendship and love.
Our Response?
At the Eucharist, after hearing the proclamation of God's word, the ideal response we could make is a real deepening of our faith. We have two outstanding examples of faith from which we can learn: "Even though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vine; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stall, yet I will rejoice in the Lord… (Hab. 3:17-19). And Paul writing to Timothy says: "…and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him (2 Tim. 1:12). There will be several occasions in which we will be tempted to distrust God, but our deepened faith should help us to hold on, no matter what the appearances. We should not be like Peter who set out confidently to walk on the waters, but seeing the waves took fright and began to sink.
On Sundays, we express this deepened faith of ours as we recite the Creed and then pray the 'Prayer of the Faith-full'. Unfortunately, for most Christians, the Creed is simply a formula that they rush through without attending to any of its words. Ideally, this profession of faith should be linked with the message of the readings. And again, the prayer 'intentions' we recite must arise out of the Scripture texts proclaimed. It is suggested that the 'intention' begin with a quotation from one of the readings. To make this clear, we take the Gospel of the 5th Sunday in Lent - the Woman taken in Adultery. One of the petitions could be framed as follows: "'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.' Father, we pray that all who celebrate Eucharist today be very sensitive to the evil of idle gossip, especially against those who work to spread your kingdom: we pray to the Lord." If different members of the assembly could make these petitions spontaneously, that would be wonderful. If not, the Parish Liturgy Team could formulate these, keeping in mind the needs of the Parishioners.
While this is our response in words, there is yet another kind of response we need to make - in action. Having seen how faithful and unbelievably loving God is, the liturgy of the Eucharist invites us to entrust our lives totally into his hands so that we commit ourselves to glorify God's name and make his kingdom come among us. We do this as we bring our gifts to the altar. We are all aware that the bread and wine symbolize our very selves offered and surrendered to the Lord that he may work through us. However, one wonders how many really and consciously put themselves into the gifts as these are being presented to the Celebrant. We all know that if five hosts are brought to the altar, the Lord can transform only those five, even though another hundred are present on the Credence table at the side. In other words, it is only those aspects of our lives that we actually bring to the altar and surrender to the Lord that he will be able to transform. It is not enough to merely wish to be changed into Christ: we need to consciously and decisively bring the 'unredeemed' aspects of our lives to the transforming power of the Eucharist.
But, how would we know which are the unredeemed parts or areas of our lives? One simple way to get in touch with our inner selves is to listen to our 'self-talk' or the tape-recorder within us which constantly reels out message after message as we experience one thing after another. By keeping in touch with these messages we get a fairly good idea of what are our deeper motivations, aspirations, feelings and desires. Often these, more than what appears on the surface, present a more accurate and true picture of who we really are. Attending to these messages, then, will help us pick out the areas in our lives that still need the healing touch of Christ. It stands to reason that it will not suffice to bring these areas to Christ only once in a way. Repeated and consistent healing will be needed especially for the more serious and deep-rooted problems we have.
All that we have said above goes to show that we have a lot of personal work to do at the Presentation of gifts. That is the reason why it is recommended that we do not sing a hymn during this time, except to accompany the gifts to the altar. The rest of the time should be spent in silent reflection, which can continue well into the Eucharistic Prayer too, if needed. The way we handle this little pivotal section of the Eucharist will determine to a large extent its practical efficacy in our lives. The Eucharist does have the power to transform individual lives and even Society - provided we give it a fair chance. After all, do not the bread and wine stand for "what earth has given and human hands have made" - everything that concerns our life here on earth?
You get out of the Eucharist only
as much as you put into it!
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Copyright © Fr. Erasto Fernandez. All rights reserved.
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