Wednesday, September 12, 2012

23rd Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 13-09-12

1 Cor 8:1-7, 11-13 / Luke 6:27-38

When we make a deeper reflection of what we are doing when we receive Holy Communion, it is really awesome.

We believe that we are receiving the Body of Christ. We believe that Christ is the Risen Lord and God.

When we consume the sacred host which is the Body of Christ, we open our hearts to Christ to take possession of our whole being and to make His home in us.

All this profound mystery is expressed in the simple act of eating. In other words the simple act of "eating" the sacred host expresses the awesome reality of humanity coming into communion with divinity.

Yet it also a known fact that other religions, and even cults, use the act of eating to express a communion with the deity or idol or whatever that is worshipped.

For that same reason, St. Paul said in the 1st reading that he rather not eat meat which was offered to idol, not because he believed in the reality of idols, but rather to avoid causing a scandal.

At the same time, he was also emphasizing on his knowledge of what he was coming into communion with in the Eucharist.

He was coming into communion with the one true God, the Father from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and with Jesus Christ through whom all things come and through whom we exist.

When we truly know and understand what we are doing at Holy Communion and whom we are receiving into our hearts, then we will surely be able to accept what Jesus is teaching us in the gospel.

Yes, we would love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who treat us badly.

And we will say with a deep conviction: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20).