The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic Christian livelihood. It is the source because the graces of God flow from this sacrament into every aspect of life. The Eucharist gives us nourishment and strength. It gives us direction and guidance as we listen to the proclaimed Word of God and the prayers. It gives us a model to imitate as we encounter Christ and experience again his giving his life over for our sake. It is the source of our communion with God and each other in the Body of Christ. It is also the summit towards which our life is directed. We bring our work, our families, the cares of our hearts, our joys, our sorrows, our ministries, our failings, every aspect of our life, and we bring it up to the Lord to be offered to God on the altar. It is the summit because this celebration is the intersection of heaven and earth and we get that foretaste of heaven towards which we are journeying. It is the summit because we get a share now in that divine life into which we are called. It is the greatest prayer we have in the Church, to be united to the offering and prayer of Jesus Christ himself to the Father in the Spirit, and it is why we offer the Mass with various intentions for the ones whom we love. When the host is presented to us and we hear the words, the Body of Christ, we recognize that is the same Christ before us who walked and talked the earth 2000 years ago, it is Jesus’ Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, and we claim our part in the Body of Christ together with the acclamation, “Amen.” It is not a symbol – it is the sacrament of the living God. The old hymn declares, “O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine; All Praise and All Thanksgiving Be Every Moment Thine.” That is why we genuflect to the blessed sacrament when we come into His presence in the tabernacle and why we adore the blessed sacrament in adoration. Look up the Eucharistic Miracles throughout history. Moreover, every celebration of the Eucharist is a miracle in which the eternal God, mighty in power, humbles Himself and becomes truly present before us in love. We would be remiss to neglect this opportunity to become present to God and reciprocate God’s love in this mutual exchange of thanksgiving. I hope you get the chance to participate in our family of parish’s Corpus Christi Procession this year together with us to celebrate in a special way the gift of the Eucharist and receive God’s blessings once more. Enough cannot be said of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic Christian livelihood.
Happy Father’s Day to all of our Dads. I shamelessly will use this bulletin space to say Happy Father’s Day to my own Dad, the original ‘Father’ Luke (since I share your namesake). I’ll try not to overdo it, since I am tearing up now as I write this (joyfully so), thinking about all the things I want to say, and knowing that everybody is reading this besides and that you and most Dads don’t want this kind of attention. But we’ve shared a lot of life together, ups and downs alike. And though neither of us is perfect, far from it, through all the stories and life lessons and growing up and activities and absences and travels and work and helping each other out, you continue to be my inspiration and my hero. The more I reflect upon my life and God’s calling for me, the more I have to say, “all I have ever wanted was to be a Dad like you.” And it is really cool to be a “father” amongst fathers and to care for God’s family as such. Indeed, for my own spiritual life, my original and best image for relating to God in prayer for who God is and what God is about is that of a Father still, in large part because of you. Thank you. I love you.
Peace,
~Fr. Luke 