8 posts tagged “eucharist”
It's been some time since I forced myself to blog, so I figure now it is about time. I've had the idea of writing a brief explanation of photos I take and place on my facebook page as my "profile picture." I'll start with the current, and update you as I change. When possible, I'll try to go back through some of the photos I have taken.
Thanksgiving is a pleasant holiday - a time to pause and give thanks, a time of reflection.
I love peeking into nooks and crannies. You find little treasures that lie forgotten. Kind of like when I was a kid and wanted to be an archeologist, except that I'm looking at things that have only been set aside for a few decades, instead of a few thousand years.
Or, how pilgrims walk hundreds of miles, and why they must.
Or, how we can open our doors to strangers, and why we must.
Today's reading from the Gospel: Lord, when did we see you a stranger and welcome you? Hungry and feed you?
Tuesday, the group from the Episcopal church was honored at the mass in the cathedral, but as known Episcopalians, could not receive communion - quite obvious because they were front and center, and noted. There was a lot of accomodation, and honor for them in the mass, but, yet, they could not "receive."
I won't criticize the Catholic church for their teaching on the Eucharist, but use this is an opportunity to point out the division in the Body of Christ, our brokenness as a family. So, after the pilgrims mass, we went out to the statue where we previously had washed feet, and there, Fr. Howard offered Eucharist for his flock, and we communed together in this holy place, a sign of our yearning to be made one, as Jesus prayed for us.
During the mass, we sang one of the Taize chants, from the older hymn, Ubi Caritas. So may it be.
I remain convinced that gathering together for a meal is a significant event, a way Christ taught us to participate in the salvation of the world. Think if kings and dictators and presidents actually ate together before going to war? Of if they would actually eat with their people from time to time.
Some random thoughts on Grace
Saying the rosary in Grace Cathedral today, I noticed anew the fresco of the Nativity in one of the chapels to the side of the choir. There were painted waters from a rock, upon which were Mary and Joseph with Baby Jesus. The waters seemed to flow down upon the altar itself, in a comingling of baptism and eucharist. Like the words of the hymn, "sorrow and love flow mingled down," and at the heart of both sacraments, in these profound expressions of life reflected profound moments of the grief of both Mary and Jesus. This reminds me, in these lenten days, that Jesus' love for us interesected the worlds desperate need for redemption in death, which death has become for us the vertex, or perhaps vortex, of Life.
The waters hit the altar at the point of its crown, where sits a mother pelican, one of the images Christ's love, and perhaps, though not classicaly so, also a symbol of the love of Mary, whose flesh of her own flesh became the bread of angels and of mortals.
Listening to a wonderful rendition of the gospel, "Take Me to the Water," sung by one of my favorites, Nina Simone, I was drawn to the image of which she sings - "take me home to be baptized." Water and home. For some reason, this spurred me to reflect on my ongoing interior debate about "open communion":
I know there are strong opinions on the "OC." I remember a late night conversation with a good pal the night before my Theology exam, as we both studied and tried to explain our views. At the time I was open communion. The more I think about it, the sadder I get that baptism is seen more as a club membership, rather than the perfect joy of life lived at its deepest. I want to be for the OC. All the arguments sound like sugar to my liberal sensitivies. Pastorally, I would want very much for all to gather around the table - and pray that may come true! Isn't that a heavenly vision.
But doesn't open communion smack a little too much like consumerism - like the story of consuming that is eating away at God's earth - "this fragile earth our island home"? I wonder if there is a correlation between abuse of the earth's resources, especially disregard for unclean water, and a rejection of baptism as gift rather than a burden?
When credit card companies, preferring that we become numbers instead of names, portray us as wrenches in the gears if we do not bow to the pressure of plastic (don't you love the trendy visa commercials that are out now), and the politics of economics are pushing us to take the apple and eat, is it any wonder that people are offended when we suggest that water not only about washing, but thirsting? Is Coke or Snapple, or even wine, a real substitute for good, clean, unbottled water?
Might the OC be a sneaky way for consumerist culture to creep its way into the theology of the church? Could it be that a theological assent to the OC makes way for an ecologically hostile, dietarily unhealthy Christian spirituality that is almost as problematic is a table so closed that there is no room for God?
