Blessings of Communion

Through holy Communion, our encounter with Jesus Christ beckons us to walk in the light; along a new path forged by our Creator. Every Mass gives us that opportunity to meet Him in the Eucharist. I see it as a continuous invitation to change, from which arises the intention to meet Him and desire that encounter every day of our lives.

This desire for spiritual and personal evolution must be rooted in the profound mysteries that we live in holy Mass.

Many times, that flavor of the sacred remains in us, but we often leave it in the church’s tabernacle. Perhaps we think of a God who is far away from us. We do not grasp or understand the sacrifice of Christ, nor do we consider our sacrifices that in our Christlike humanity we offer to the Father.

In holy Communion, we unite ourselves to Christ. During the week with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can offer our lives and everything we do in love.

Many distressed parents and grandparents have expressed to me their growing concern that their children get bored at Mass or are too lazy to attend. I believe this happens because going to Mass becomes routine, and we have reduced ourselves to the simple fact of having to go to Mass rather than giving God an hour of our life. We have forgotten to approach Mass with anticipation; we have forgotten the marvelous mystery of our encounter with Christ.

It is like when lovers get married and no longer have an interest in the mystery, they found in each other. They stay in the routine of marriage as if it were a business; if we need to invest time to form bonds of love and trust in human relationships, then even more, in our relationship with God.

Yes, the communion, which we desire so much, is formed not because we enter a temple, but because we live, as Saint Paul says, “in Jesus Christ.” And this union comes from the recognition that my life is sacred and is part of the salvation of the world. This understanding acquires another spiritual level, a greater consciousness, and a new path.

By our Baptism, we are a testimony to the presence of Jesus Christ in the world. If “I am in Christ,” in communion with Him through the Eucharist, every Sunday, my life, our lives, are part of the offering that I present to God in the Eucharist every eight days.

 The word eucharist in Greek means “giving thanks,” and in the context of the Jewish prayer, it is: “giving thanks to God.”

Arriving at the altar with a thankful attitude can make all the difference.
We must take time to reflect on everything we have and give thanks to God, our families and everything. We cannot lose sight of the fact that there are billions of people living in poverty in wars and famine. Our world is going through a historical moment in which we no longer look to the skies to contemplate the wonders of God, but we see the screens of televisions, cell phones or computers and wait for someone to tell us what is wonderful. At other times, we look at the luxuries of the world or of people we admire for their power, wealth, or fame, and we are left thinking that we are poor—that we lack a lot, and we forget to give thanks for “the daily bread” with which God blesses us.

 We forget the blessings that God gives us, and we feel abandoned – victims of a poverty that is not real. Because we feel that way, we have neither the desire nor energy to assist others. There will always be someone who has more, and greed blinds us to service—blind to those works that are necessary to live in gratitude for all that God has given us. 
We live in a world of accumulation, materialism, and consumerism—it has the purpose of making us feel that what we have is not enough! We are always missing something—supporting Adam and Eve’s obsession that having it all was not enough—and the deception continues; we need more—and we needed it yesterday!

This greed of original sin is the struggle of our lives and the reason we do not exist in the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit. We experience the insanity of dissatisfaction! An emptiness that consumes our mind and spirit, and fills us with ingratitude. Surrendering ourselves to reflection, meditating in silence, and prayer are necessary disciplines to build in our interior life, a sanctuary where we can experience a daily communion with God.

Yes, we are sinners, but we are also sons and daughters of God, who has manifested His grace in our lives.

One way to come into deep communion with God is to prepare ourselves to let go of our sins and receive God’s forgiveness—a freedom we offer in love for our sacrifices of the week that together with the perfect sacrifice of Christ we celebrate in each Eucharist.

From there springs a new life, and we can start our week full of gratitude and grace to be able to love and serve Jesus Christ, the Master of our lives.