Welcome friend!

We’ve focused a lot on private prayer as a first step in our response to God’s word. This week, we explore how the sacramental life of the Church makes us members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Christian spirituality is not “navel gazing.” Christ requires more than a private response. Jesus founded His Church for us to share in the worship, prayer, and action of the community of the faithful, together striving to grow in our love of God and neighbor. To move beyond private prayer and enter into the Mystical Body of Christ, we need the sacraments.

“Everything that Christ did on earth, is done in the sacraments.”

To get the “wow factor” in that statement, you have to consider everything Christ did on earth. Praying. Teaching. Blessing. Forgiving. Feeding. Healing. Saving. If you want Jesus to act in your life now the way He did in the lives of His disciples 2000 years ago, you can find Him in the sacraments. But how can we unleash the power of the sacraments in our lives? The same way his first disciples did: through faith.

Remember what Jesus said to the woman who was healed of a twelve-years’ hemmorrhage by touching the tassel of His cloak: “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” (Mt 9:20-22)

How many Catholics routinely line up for Communion on a Sunday–emphasis on the “routine”? A few months ago, I went to a presentation on Eucharistic miracles. One of the speakers asked an interesting question: If Catholics receive the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion at each Mass, why isn’t our Church on fire with the Holy Spirit, the love of God and neighbor? He had an even more interesting answer: Because of our indifference or worse, disbelief. We receive Jesus, but we don’t really believe. We “treat Him as a dead object,” as He complained to St. Faustina, the Polish nun who gave us the Divine Mercy chaplet.

In essence, we commit sacrilege…which is no way to call the Holy Spirit into our life, the life of our parish, the life of our Church. In fact, the speaker put it more strongly, saying that when we receive Holy Communion without recognizing and welcoming Christ’s Real Presence, Satan enters us at the same time. Now that is a scary thought, and it explains how Judas could leave the table of the Last Supper, having partaken of Christ’s Body and Blood…and go to the Pharisees and betray Him to His death.

On the other side of the coin, St. Alphonus Liguori said that “there is no prayer more dear to God than that which is made after Communion.” Speak heart-to-heart with Jesus, or pray as the saints did. Or both. You know your troubles. Your hopes. Bring them to God through Jesus.

In the Eucharist, we receive Jesus–Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. What would happen in our lives, in our parish, in our Church, in the world…if we received so generous a gift with the faith of the woman who was healed merely by brushing His cloak? That’s a question, and a challenge, we should ask ourselves each time we receive Holy Communion.

“Give me your sins.” Fr. Freeh’s example of the difference between human and Divine forgiveness keeps coming back to me: “You can forgive me my lie to you…but I’m still a liar. But when God forgives me…I’m no longer a liar.” I had never realized how thorough Confession is, not only taking away my sins, but changing my very character. Telling the truth in the confessional really does set you free.

The more I think about Jesus’ request to give Him my sins, the happier I am, and the more I look forward to my next Confession. No, really.

Begin now to move beyond “going through the motions” ritual. Go to Confession having made a good examination of conscience with a firm purpose of amendment. Be fully present at Mass. And after Communion, be sure to welcome Jesus into your heart, into the dark corners of your life, to bring healing and peace. Courage! Your faith has saved you.

Readings for Sunday, August 17th.