A Year to Unfold the Hidden Power of the Holy Mass (September)
First Topic: Eucharist, Source of Concord: The Novelty of Acting Together
- Presentation of the theme
In Abitinae, a small town in North Africa, one Sunday in 304, 49 Christians were caught celebrating the Eucharist in defiance of imperial prohibitions. Arrested, the proconsul Anulinus asked them why. The answer was clear:
Without celebrating the Eucharist every Sunday, we cannot live.
After atrocious tortures, they died martyred.
Why could the early Christians not live without celebrating the Holy Eucharist? What kind of life cannot be lived without receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord? The new life that consists of loving God above all things and their neighbor as Christ has loved us.
It was said of the early Christians, that they had one heart and one soul. Why was this so? Because they participated in the same “breaking of the bread”. This living Bread generated in them a new mutual love, and thus they were able to act in “concord”. The Bread of the Body of Christ and the cup of his Blood became in them the source of living together and acting together.
Without receiving communion, it is impossible to live with concord among ourselves.
- What is concord?
The word concord is strange to us: it is an English word, but it is rarely used. We prefer using words like harmony. But harmony falls short: it refers more to the fact of coinciding, like the instruments of an orchestra coincide in a common harmony. Concord, however, refers to the source of that harmony: a common heart.
We all understand the meaning of discord. We suffer when we experience it. Discord arises when we do not agree. When there is a conflict of interests and there is a danger that one will impose oneself on the other by force or manipulation. Discord separates us, paralyzes us, and we do not know what to do. We end up acting alone.
Concord is its opposite: we appreciate that we have common interests, and we no longer see the other as someone opposed to us, but as someone with whom we can accomplish great projects. Above all, the adventure of living a great and beautiful life.
But why do we have common interests? Here are two answers: because we coincide in them or because we participate together in something greater.
- If we only coincide, it could happen that we would be together as a conglomerate, with the danger that our interests could change, and we would then see each other as strangers. I already know what I want, and I find you, someone who agrees with me. But do we know what we want when we are isolated from others? An example of this could be a workplace in which the individuals seek the common interest of earning money, but don’t have a common vision for the enterprise.
- Interests may be common because something has happened in our lives that has changed us and allows us to understand that “my good” is “our good”: we are now in a relationship of communion rather than simply agreeing with one another. C.S. Lewis describes the birth of friendship as the moment when two people say, “You too?” “Me too what?” “Have you also seen the same destiny as me?” It’s not when we look at each other, but when we look together at the same destiny that friendship is born. This destiny is new to me, and it is the encounter with you that has revealed it to me. This is at the basis of relationships and families.
When friendship is born, we come to say: “Your fullness is my fullness”. And I can only love this fullness with you. What makes life great and beautiful is the way that we love each other. Only in being together can we love the greatness and beauty of life: by loving together the great things in life, and by loving together the steps that make that greatness possible. This is where we find the spark of life, in looking together in the same direction and in wanting things together, with creativity and tenacity. What matters now are the common projects in marriage, in the family, with friends, and at work.
By myself, I can neither imagine nor want such great and beautiful things. I can only see them with others. And I can only want them if we want them together. What makes it possible for us to see and love together is that we have the same heart: that is concord.
- Why the Eucharist is a source of concord.
“This is my body which is given up for you” “This is the blood of the new covenant which will be poured out for you”.
What we find in the Eucharist is an action of Christ, by which he gives himself to the Father for us. And he asks us to eat and drink of him. When the priest says to us before communion, “The body of Christ” we respond “Amen”. “That’s it”, it is the body of Christ who gives himself for me, and, at the same time, introduces me into his offering to the Father and to his love for mankind.
And now spouses can also say, “This is my body which is given for you” and workers can say, “This is my blood that is poured out”, without the fear of facing difficulties. Parents can say, “This is my body for you”, my children, giving themselves up for them. And friends can say “This is my blood of the new covenant”, weaving their friendship with shared projects.
Communion with Christ introduces us to his dynamism of communion with the Father and with our brothers and sisters: a spring that never ceases to flow with the desire to meet and do things together. Communion with Christ makes us sharers in the destiny of Christ and the destiny of our brethren. Communion to Christ allows us to understand that we are part of his Body, of that “we”, of the new People which is the Church that the Lord has constituted.
And we receive communion as spouses, as siblings, as workers, as friends, participating together in the dynamism of Christ.
Together we are called to live the life of Christ, to love the Father and to love one another with the love of Christ. We can only love if we love with Christ and if we love together, uniting ourselves in wanting the same thing. Only if together we say, “I also want it with you”, only then can we want the love that makes life great and beautiful.
The Eucharist, when we receive communion, generates in us a “willing together”.
For this reason, we cannot live without celebrating it: we would cease to love what makes life great and beautiful. Living would lose its greatness and would be transformed into surviving.
- Objective of the year
This year we will focus on the hidden power of the Holy Eucharist. To receive Communion means to enter into a new dynamic, a new life. His Body and Blood flow through our veins and so we can love in a new way: we can love together.
We will gradually unfold the power that the Eucharist has in the different areas of our life.
Questions for Discussion
- In this Chapter, the foundations for this year’s discussions and parish life are laid. Are the basic concept clear for us? What do we mean when we use words like “life”, “concord”, “love”, “great and beautiful life”, “given up”, “poured out”?
- “Why do we have common interests? […] because we coincide in them or because we participate together in something greater”. Is this statement clear? What experiences do you have of finding concord in seeking the common goal?
- How is concord integrated with the evident differences that we see in our families and communities: differences due to being male/female, personalities, history, formation, priorities, understanding of life, talents, wounds, even sin?
- Has the Eucharist transformed your life, and the life of your family, and your relationships? How? What would disappear, if anything, from your life if the Eucharist disappeared?