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Body and
Blood of Christ
No.1
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Fr. Carl McCarthy
June 18, 2006
The Eucharist gives us strength to face the
challenges of life.
There is a beautiful
scriptural scene of the two disciples walking The Road Emmaus. Jesus has
just been put to death, and they are talking about all the things that have
happened. As they walk, a stranger joins them, and they share with
him these happenings. In turn, the stranger begins to share the scriptures,
and they are so intrigued they ask him to stay and join them for supper.
The stranger then took a loaf of bread, said the blessing, broke it and
gave it to them, and they recognized him in the breaking of the bread as
Jesus, their Savior.
As I join this faith
community as your pastor, it will be over the next few days, weeks and
months that you and I will come to know one another. This will happen as
we visit before and after Mass, as we see one another in the office, as we
gather at meetings, as I come to your hospital bed and your home, as we
work together in service, as we prepare for baptisms, weddings and
funerals. But perhaps the most important place that we’ll come to know one
other is as we gather here, around God’s Altar, and share in the
scriptures and the breaking of the bread.
Your
walk of faith has already begun. I join you on your road to the kingdom. I
join you on your faith journey. I join you to listen, to pray, to preach,
to serve, to inspire, to continue the vision of life and faith that is the
mission of this Parish. Above all, I join you as together we continue to
experience the unconditional love that God has for us in giving us His
Son, who comes to us through the Eucharist.
This
Eucharistic celebration for us looks neat and tidy, but it did not
begin this way. The Eucharist came through sacrifice. On the night before
Jesus died, he said "this is my body," and he gave it to us. He then said,
"this is my blood that will be shed for many," and he poured it out for us.
The Eucharist calls us to do the same as we walk in faith together. The
Eucharist calls us to do more then receive - it calls us to give. The
Eucharist calls us to action, and it calls us to become the Body of Christ for
one another and for the world.
This
Eucharistic giving could be likened to the following. During
the Vietnam War, some stray artillery landed in an orphanage,
wounding several children. One was a nine-year-old girl, who lost a lot of
blood. The American forces were close by, and a doctor and nurse where
dispatched to help the children. They immediately went to work on the
young girl, who was in shock and needed blood.
There
was a group of unharmed children, and, in poor Vietnamese language, the
doctor explained to the orphans that they needed someone to give their
blood and help save the girl's life. At first no one stepped forward. But
out of the silence came a ten-year-old boy, named “Henge.”
The nurse quickly placed
him on a cot and began to check to see if their blood was compatible;
it was. She then started the transfusion from him to the little girl. As
this procedure was happening, he began to cry. “Is it hurting, Henge?” she
asked. He shook his head no, but the sobs continued to grow and grow. The
medical team became nervous, thinking that there was something wrong.
About
that time a Vietnamese nurse arrived. She quickly spoke to Henge in his
language. After
several sobbing questions, she whispered to him, and the sobbing stopped.
The nurse then turned to the American team and said, “He thought he was
going to die. He thought that you needed all of his blood and that he
would have to die to save the girl.”
The
doctor was stunned and asked, “How did he possibly have the guts to do
that?” The Vietnamese nurse turned and asked the boy. He simply answered,
“Because, she is my friend.”
May we
come to recognize and know one another in the breaking of the bread.
sdrose@bellsouth.net
8.2/2006
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