The Eucharist: Heaven Kisses Earth

What the Church and the Saints say about the Eucharist

Music by Matt Maher, "The End and the Beginning"

Created by Daxx Bondoc

Unless You are Born Again in Water and Spirit…

You seldom hear Catholics use the word “born again”. Maybe because the word “born again” is often linked to Protestants. But “born again” or “being born again” is a Catholic word.

Why?

Because Jesus it came from Jesus.

“Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” – John 3:5

And Jesus is the founder of the Catholic Church.

All of us Catholics became “born again” Christians when we received the Sacrament of Baptism. In Baptism, the sons and daughters of Adam dies, and are born again in water and Spirit as the sons and daughters of the God the Father. Baptism radically changes us. “Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. (1272 of the Catechism)”

Of Water and Spirit

At the dawn of creation, water with the Spirit was the Father’s instrument of creation. 

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Gen 1:2

The Church has seen in Noah's ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it "a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

The waters of the great flood
you made a sign of the waters of Baptism,
that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness. (1219 of CCC)

But above all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from the slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by Baptism.

You freed the children of Abraham from the slavery of Pharaoh,
bringing them dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea,
to be an image of the people set free in Baptism. (1221 of CCC)

Finally, Baptism is prefigured in the crossing of the Jordan River by which the People of God received the gift of the land promised to Abraham's descendants, an image of eternal life. The promise of this blessed inheritance is fulfilled in the New Covenant.  (1222 of CCC)

Salvation is a Free Gift

Catholics believes that Salvation and the incorporation to the Family of God is a “free gift” and cannot be earned. That is the reason, Catholics baptize infants. Since we can never earn salvation, why delay it?

We baptized Catholics must constantly remind ourselves of who we are. We are a new creation. We are children of the Father. Our very being was “marked” by God. And that “indelible mark” says we belong to Him.
But like any gift, salvation can be rejected. We can ignore the “mark” that is in us. We can be children who abandon their Father.

So if you are a baptized Catholic Christian, act like one.
If someone asks you (a Catholic) if you are a “born again Christian”, say, “Yes! We Catholics are the original born again Christians.”

The Fecundity of Marriage

Where does the Eucharist fit in the divine plan of salvation?

Has liturgical dance been approved for Masses by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments?

(The question and answer session followed Cardinal Arinze's talk on the meaning of the Eucharist. The cardinal, who has headed the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments)

Has liturgical dance been approved for Masses by your office?

There has never been a document from our Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments saying that dance is approved in the Mass.
The question of dance is difficult and delicate. However, it is good to know that the tradition of the Latin Church has not known the dance. It is something that people are introducing in the last ten years -- or twenty years. It was not always so. Now it is spreading like wildfire, one can say, in all the continents -- some more than others. In my own continent, Africa, it is spreading. In Asia, it is spreading.

Now, some priests and lay people think that Mass is never complete without dance. The difficulty is this: we come to Mass primarily to adore God -- what we call the vertical dimension. We do not come to Mass to entertain one another. That's not the purpose of Mass. The parish hall is for that.

So all those that want to entertain us -- after Mass, let us go to the parish hall and then you can dance. And then we clap. But when we come to Mass we don't come to clap. We don't come to watch people, to admire people. We want to adore God, to thank Him, to ask Him pardon for our sins, and to ask Him for what we need.
Don't misunderstand me, because when I said this at one place somebody said to me: "you are an African bishop. You Africans are always dancing. Why do you say we don't dance?"

A moment -- we Africans are not always dancing! [laughter]

Moreover, there is a difference between those who come in procession at Offertory; they bring their gifts, with joy. There is a movement of the body right and left. They bring their gifts to God. That is good, really. And some of the choir, they sing. They have a little bit of movement. Nobody is going to condemn that. And when you are going out again, a little movement, it's all right.

But when you introduce wholesale, say, a ballerina, then I want to ask you what is it all about. What exactly are you arranging? When the people finish dancing in the Mass and then when the dance group finishes and people clap -- don't you see what it means? It means we have enjoyed it. We come for enjoyment. Repeat. So, there is something wrong. Whenever the people clap -- there is something wrong -- immediately. When they clap -- a dance is done and they clap.

It is possible that there could be a dance that is so exquisite that it raises people's minds to God, and they are praying and adoring God and when the dance is finished they are still wrapped up in prayer. But is that the type of dance you have seen? You see. It is not easy.

Most dances that are staged during Mass should have been done in the parish hall. And some of them are not even suitable for the parish hall.

I saw in one place -- I will not tell you where -- where they staged a dance during Mass, and that dance was offensive. It broke the rules of moral theology and modesty. Those who arranged it -- they should have had their heads washed with a bucket of holy water! [laughter]

Why make the people of God suffer so much? Haven't we enough problems already? Only Sunday, one hour, they come to adore God. And you bring a dance! Are you so poor you have nothing else to bring us? Shame on you! That's how I feel about it.

Somebody can say, "but the pope visited this county and the people danced". A moment: Did the pope arrange it? Poor Holy Father -- he comes, the people arranged. He does not know what they arranged. And somebody introduces something funny -- is the pope responsible for that? Does that mean it is now approved? Did they put in on the table of the Congregation for Divine Worship? We would throw it out! If people want to dance, they know where to go.

Source: http://www.adoremus.org/1003Arinze.html

273. How did he institute the Eucharist?

272. When did Jesus Christ institute the Eucharist?

271. What is the Eucharist?

495. What are the goods of conjugal love to which sexuality is ordered?

Life’s Source, Center and Summit

Life can be confusing. Life can be frustrating.

One can be lost in life. And many of us are, whether we know it or not.

One can exhaust life without living it.

Many of us define life as pleasure. The more pleasure, the more we feel alive. But is that what is all about? Many of us have also experienced that after the pleasure comes the hang over, comes the misery we were running away from. Misery can never be cured by pleasure. Misery can only be cured by love.

This redeeming love has a name, the name of the Redeemer, Jesus the Christ. Only in Christ can life be alive.

“For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and in him” - Colossians 1:16

Jesus is the source, center and summit of our life.

Since Jesus made Himself the source of our lives, we need Him. We need him not only in our thoughts and imagination, we need Him physically. We humans are both spirit and flesh. We need to be alive not only in spirit but also in body. That is why Jesus left us His very Self in the Eucharist. “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” – Matthew 28:20.

The Most Holy Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. In short, the Eucharist is Jesus Himself, in the appearance of bread and wine. When we consume the Host, we consume Jesus Himself.

In the Eucharist, our whole being receives life itself. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” says Jesus. All the life in the universe enters not only our spirit but our bodies as well. The Life that created everything now flows in our very veins, in our very blood.

When we partake of the Eucharist we also let love in, a love that is not just an emotion or attraction, but realest love. We let Love Himself, Jesus who is love made flesh, in our own flesh.

The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch." – 1324 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Only Jesus can give us life and life to the full. Until we make Him the very center of the fabric of our being, we shall remain miserable. We were made for love, and love is our only true joy. And this love can only be found in Jesus.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. -Jn 6:53

The Eucharist is everything for us, for Jesus is everything to us.

Written by Daxx Bondoc