The Eucharist
Sr Angela Marie OP reflects on the climax of the Mass.
At the climax of the Mass, the priest approaches the altar and recites these words: Jesus “took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples.” Took. Blessed. Broke. Gave. Each of these verbs is potent, and each one is worth pondering. We pause here to consider “take,” which is theologically significant. The very word for Church in Greek, Ekklisía, means “called out of.” We are called out of the secular world to enter God’s Kingdom, to follow a new way of life with a higher calling. We are called to be holy just like God, and this word, too, means set apart/consecrated/other. Just as the priest takes bread at Mass and sets it apart from normal bread, consecrating it into Christ’s very body and blood, God calls people throughout history to be set apart for a Christian relationship with himself.
Even before Christ came to establish his Church, God was preparing for this sacred assembly. He called the Israelites to be his chosen people. He took them out from the ways of the nations and invited them into a deeper relationship with him. What he called them to leave behind helps us understand what Jesus invites us into at Mass when the priest repeats this word take. In Egypt, God elected his chosen people and invited them into the covenant at Mount Sinai. But first he had to take them out of Egypt. They had to leave behind their old comforts and securities to trust that God would provide for them in the desert. Though they were slaves in Egypt, they continually pined for the “fleshpots, leeks and onions” that they had tasted in Egypt. Faced with the sacrifices of following God through the desert, they repeatedly murmured to return to their old comforts. God takes these people to himself, but often they do not want to be taken.
How often do we act the same way? How often do we Christians, after resolving to follow Christ more closely, look back to old comforts? We may value sleeping in or Netflix over preparing our hearts for Mass. Why do superficial attractions capture our hearts? “Capture.” Do we willingly allow ourselves to be enslaved by what our senses and laziness can enjoy after Christ has set us free? God wanted to “take Egypt” out of the Israelites just like he wants to take the empire of sin and the evil tyrants of our disordered passions out of us when he calls us forth at Mass (cf. St. Gregory of Nyssa).
When God takes the empire of sin out of us, calling us into his holy family, he nourishes us perfectly. And we must trust that God will fill our longings with exactly what we need. One of the most vivid types for the Eucharist in the Old Testament occurs in this same drama of God calling the Israelites to himself and taking them out of Egypt. As they wander through the desert for forty years, he sustains them with “bread from heaven,” manna. And when he calls us forth into his Church, he feeds us with the true bread from heaven, his precious body and blood.
By Sister Angela Marie
Sr Angela Marie is a Dominican Sister of St Cecilia based at Greyfriars Convent in Elgin in the Diocese of Aberdeen.
Below is the list of Scottish Saints for the next two weeks. To get a detailed biography please click on the button below:
13th October
St Comgan or Congan, 8th Century & St Fyndoca (and St Fyncana)
17th October
St Rule/Regulus
23rd October
St Munnu 6th Century
26th October
St Bean, 11th Century & St Eata, 686AD,
Please click on the links to find out more. You will be taken to www.maryswell.net that lists many of Scotland’s Saints by feast day throughout the year, you will also find Scottish prayer cards, a portion of the rosary in Scots, and other articles celebrating Catholicism in Scotland.