Thursday, November 12, 2009

We use every last part!

I was struck the other day during Mass at how carefully the celebrant was cleaning out the chalice and the paten - so meticulously, making sure to get every last crumb and every last drop! None of the Body and Blood of Christ is to be wasted, and he was making sure to use every part of the consecrated host!

What a beautiful analogy for our community and our Church! Every one of us is called to communion with one another, both Communion (capital "c" - literally the Communion of the sacrament of Holy Communion!) and communion in the sense of community. We need one another, and others need us. How perfect it is that the priest demonstrates the necessity of a community that uses everything to its fullest extent!

God uses everything that He has placed in us! All of our weaknesses, our failings, and our doubts; the things that are seemingly useless to us and merely a hamper to our journey toward sanctity, all of these things are crumbs in the bottom of the paten! Christ insists that we receive every last piece of His consecrated body, that we don't waste a single moment of our lives!

He uses our pride to teach us humility, our sins to give us grace, our hurts to give us healing! What a good God this is, He who brings people into our lives - through our communities and through our travels, through our rough times and through our good times - that can help us and bring us closer toward His light! There is a bright and glorious side to every moment of darkness that we experience, and that side is the Mercy and Love of Jesus Christ.

The difficult test you think you failed, the anxiety you experience when waiting for the grade, the sadness you feel when you receive, and the true joy you feel when your best friend, as a surprise, takes you out for a coffee or an ice cream - all of this process is intended by God to create the best person in you. You can't mix up the process of failing, or else you wouldn't leave with the same appreciation for your friend. Your friend might not have the opportunity to show you how much she loves you had you not failed. You might have not seen Christ as much in your friend had she not been given that opportunity to serve you like she did. It's all part of a Master Plan that we cannot ever fully comprehend until we reach the Beatific Vision in Heaven, and what a glorious plan that is!

God uses our every moment, our every breath, our every everything to bring about the Kingdom of God, and still gives us the free will to choose what we will do! Talk about a loving God!! He incorporates OUR decisions, OUR input into HIS creation!!! And HIS Will is still always done!! This God is truly amazing and glorious!

Not only within us, but outside of us, God conserves every moment we spend with others. How many times have you fought with your siblings? But, those fights offer the opportunity to make up, to forge stronger bonds with them that you don't have with others! Why are we so opposed to fair-weather friends, to friends we never argue with? Could it be because we never have an opportunity to serve them? To allow ourselves to be vulnerable in their sight? To allow ourselves to see the merciful and risen Christ in their eyes, and allow them to see Him in ours?

Even if the crumbs in the paten of our souls, minds, and hearts seem insignificant to us, they are precious in the sight of God. They are still His Body and His Blood! If Christ could multiply a couple fish and a few loaves of bread, imagine how much more He can do with those few crumbs of goodness that we have!!

Let us, this day and every day, be reminded of Christ's ability to grow Faith out of a mustard seed, His ability to foster true passion for His Word out of a simple "yes" to His call. If we turn over these crumbs to Him, just like the boy with the fish and the loaves, He will prepare for us and our communities a feast on Earth, create for us a Heaven out of this Communion that we share with Him!!

And there will still be baskets left over as a reminder of the goodness of God, yet another reason to always praise His Name! :)

In Christ through Mary,
Christina :)

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