eucharist

Clinging to Life

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Colorful pumpkins and mums--fall's here!
Colorful pumpkins and mums–fall’s here!

By Linda Rex

On top of the two wardrobes opposite my mom’s bed are a group of family pictures. Periodically my mom will lie quietly and gaze at the portraits of the people who are dearest to her. After a while she may remark on how well my dad looked that day in his dark gray suit. And she will ask again whether I have everything ready for when she goes.

All the complications of life have been sifted through and brought down into the simplicity of breathing in and breathing out, of eating and sleeping. There isn’t much to say or do any more that hasn’t already been considered and tossed out as being unimportant or unnecessary to her present existence.

Through her eyes I can see that when it comes down to it, there isn’t anything that really is of earth-shattering importance now when life is down to the basics.

With the little energy that she has left, my mother struggles to make another phone call. Calling her sister to say some last words to her is of paramount importance. She tries to talk to the few people she has left in her life. And cherishes the last moments she has with her family members.

Isn’t it interesting that what matters most to her now is her relationships? It made me think about how often in our lives we give ourselves over to pursuing some dream while our important relationships end up in shambles. We take our spouses for granted and neglect our children because we are caught up in the daily grind of working out the plan of our lives. We forget how transient these opportunities to share God’s love are until one day they are taken from us.

It is good to cling to life, but I’m beginning to ask myself, what is the life I’m clinging to? And what am I doing to seek out that life?

When Jesus prayed to his Father that last night before his death, he said that eternal life was intricately bound up in our knowing of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. He had earlier told his disciples that life comes through our partaking of the body and blood of Christ. There is something very central in Jesus Christ that is integral to our finding and living out true, lasting life.

It’s in the midst of our union with God in Christ that we find life that is meaningful and lasting. In sending his Spirit to us, Christ shared with us his very life and being. We are reminded of this reality when we share with one another during communion in our Eucharistic thanksgiving as we eat the bread and drink the fruit of the vine.

In Christ we are brought near to God and near to one another. There is a connection that goes deeper than even our connections by blood or by community or organization. This union is something than can never be severed, however much we may ignore, deny or neglect it.

It is worthwhile, I am seeing, to pause in the midst of our daily experiences to reflect on how all of us are joined together with God and one another in Christ and by the Holy Spirit. When we make the effort to do this, we may begin to see that some things just don’t really matter in the long run. And we may begin to value the people God has placed in our lives in new ways.

The apostle Paul stressed the importance of setting our minds and hearts on things above rather than on things on the earth. We can focus on temporary belongings and activities that in the end will come to nothing. We can value importance, power, money, and a million other things that will not follow us beyond death. Preoccupied with all this, we can miss the very things that give life its depth and meaning, and that will last on into eternity.

As another day draws to a close, I am comforted by the thought that even though there are a lot of things in my life I would like to have and don’t, I have a lot of the things that really matter. And for that reason, I find that my best response is simply gratitude. And that’s enough.

We thank and praise you God for life, breath and our human existence, but most especially for all the relationships you have placed in our lives in which we share your love with one another. Grant us the grace to appreciate and cherish them while we can, through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.

“Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:1–3 NASB

“So Jesus said to them, ‘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 yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’” John 6:53–54 NASB

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Eucharistic Prayer

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By Linda Rex

It seems that so many of us go through life trying to fill some deep emptiness within our soul. We are driven by our needs, our hurts, and our losses. We live like we are poverty-stricken and as if we have to beg and plead with God to get him to do anything to help us. It’s as though we feel that we’re all alone in the universe trying to sort out and fix everything on our own.

But the truth is that this isn’t about us at all and never has been. We’re busy striving to fill this emptiness, trying to make life work, thinking we’re starving, poor orphans, when reality we are wealthy adopted children of God Almighty.

But God is calling us to rest, not to striving. God has given us rest in Jesus—all we need for life and godliness are ours. We’ve been given the “two hands of God”, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and by doing so, God has given us his very self.

It’s not about us, but about the will of the Father worked out through his Son Jesus and in his Holy Spirit. We are bound in union with God in Christ and we share in the family relationship in the communion of the Holy Spirit. We are seated at the heavenly table of communion sharing in Christ’s intimate relationship of love with his Father in the Spirit. So we participate in the life and love of Father, Son and Spirit.

Our response to this rest in Christ is gratitude. Here in Colossians 4, Paul uses the word eucharisti which is translated “thanksgiving” in the NASB. Our attitude in prayer is one of thanksgiving or eucharist. We participate in the thanksgiving, gratitude of sharing in the heavenly life and love.

So our prayer isn’t done in a desperate plea, begging God somehow to consider possibly helping us—as though he was indifferent to our suffering and needs. We can ask, but we do so in an attitude of gratitude, resting in the reality that we are God’s beloved adopted children who he cares deeply for and is protectively watching over. Instead of seeing the world through the eyes of need and suffering, we see it through the eyes of gratitude, knowing we have nothing to fear.

Our life of prayer flows, then, out of gratitude. To live in gratitude requires faith, dependency upon God, living in relationship with God. We grow in our relationship with him, coming to know him more and more intimately and so coming to trust him more and more. We come to see his heart toward us is love and grace. We come to see and admit that we are not the center—he is.

This Eucharistic prayer reflects gratitude that God in Christ has freed us from sin, self and Satan and has given us his gifts and calling in the Spirit. We learn to trust God to do what is needed in each situation in our lives. We find ourselves thanking God more than asking him for things. We live in a relationship with God that is so meaningful we want to share it with others.

He has welcomed us to his table which is full and overflowing. So we are motivated then to invite others to come to the table to eat with us. We begin to pray for others to share in the Triune life. We are moved to share the good news of life in Christ, desiring others to share in the family circle with us. Our gratitude for God’s awesome gift motivates us to share the truth that we have new life in Christ—we are forgiven, accepted and beloved.

Thank you, Father, for your great love for us. Thank you for sharing your very self with us in Jesus your Son and in the Holy Spirit. Grant us the grace to live in gratitude, offering our prayers in an attitude of thankfulness, and inviting others to share in our abundant blessings through Jesus and in the Spirit. Amen.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Col 4:2–6 NASB

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