A Symbolic Eucharist: “To Hell with It”

To undermine belief in the Holy Eucharist is nothing other than Satan’s attack against the very heart of the Church… the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ Himself. 

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

Next Sunday, the Church celebrates Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord.  It is a feast that rejoices in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist: Christ’s Allegory_of_the_Eucharist_-_Google_Art_Projectsubstantial, real, and abiding presence in His Church.  We acknowledge and worship this sacramental mystery whereby ordinary bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.  Neither is the Eucharist just a symbol of Christ’s Body and Blood nor does it reveal Christ to us only spiritually.  We know that Christ is really and truly present—body, blood, soul, and divinity—in the Eucharist.  This truth is so central and so important to our faith that the great Catholic American author Flannery O’Connor (d. 1964) once said in defense of the Eucharist: “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.  It is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”

We cannot help but echo O’Connor’s bold words today: To hell with the idea that the Eucharist is mere symbol without substance!  To hell with this idea because it is the lie of the Evil One!  To hell with it because it is a lie that has infected so much of Western Christianity since the Protestant Reformation!  To hell with it because it is a lie that has robbed so many of our Christian brothers and sisters of such a great gift from God—a necessary help to our salvation!  As Sacred Scripture reminds us: “Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day’” (John 6:53-54).  To undermine belief in the Holy Eucharist is nothing other than Satan’s attack against the very heart of the Church… the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ Himself.  The lance that was thrust into Christ’s side on the Cross continues to be hurled at the Savior every time His Real Presence is denied in the Eucharist.The Church dedicates the month of June to the Body of Christ and to His Most Sacred Heart.  In the Eucharist, we find the burning love of Christ made present for us upon our altar and abiding in silence in the tabernacle.  This month affords us the opportunity to examine how each of us can give better witness to the Lord’s Real Presence in the Eucharist and how we can enthrone Him in our own hearts and our homes.  Faith is always made visible in our works (cf. James 2:14-26).  Therefore, we do well to examine our outward signs of piety and reverence whenever we enter the church and then again to examine our outward signs of charity and mercy as we leave the church to go back to our homes and out into the world.  The Eucharist must be seen as the center of our existence, especially in today’s age of disbelief.

 

The Reverend Jeffery S. Loseke is a Priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and is currently the pastor of  St. Charlccn_father-les Borromeo Parish in Gretna, Nebraska.  Ordained in 2000, Fr. Loseke holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome and is working to complete his doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in interdisciplinary leadership through Creighton University in Omaha.  In addition to parish ministry, Fr. Loseke has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, taught high school theology and college-level philosophy, and has been a presenter for various missions, retreats, and diocesan formation days across the country.

Art: Allegory of the Eucharist by Artist Unknown, Ca. 1676-1725 (Wikimedia Commons)

 

Resting in the Lord

Should a vacation or a summer activity ever pull us away from Sunday Mass or daily prayer, we then would find ourselves worshipping the idol-gods of our own making.

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start to the summer, and the rhythm of life tends to change for us all.  The days are longer, the weather warmer, and we find 800px-George_Goodwin_Kilburne_The_Picnicourselves outside a whole lot more.  We are enjoying picnics, reunions, vacations, games, gardening, and a whole host of summertime activities.  Not only might we find ourselves enjoying God’s marvelous creation more, but also we add to it by expressing our own gifts and talents within it.

The summer is a great time to reflect upon the inherent dignity of work and the necessity of leisure in the divine plan.  Created in the image and likeness of God, we have been given the ability to sub-create or co-create with God.  While you and I cannot create something out of nothing as can God, we can work with God’s initial creation and further develop it in a way that expresses God’s likeness within us.  By cultivating the ground and helping it to bear fruit; by honing our skills and sharpening our reflexes for a competitive sport; or by painting, writing, or sculpting a work of art into existence we give further meaning to the world around us and we participate in God’s own work.  Because of the effects of sin, we live in a broken world; therefore, not all work is pleasing.  Sometimes it takes sheer toil and willpower to persevere through it.  Nevertheless, by laboring through these difficulties in love, united with God and by His grace, we overcome the effects of sin and help to bring about God’s kingdom.

The Book of Genesis reminds us that God Himself “rested” after completing the work of Creation, not because He can be exhausted but to teach us the necessity of taking time away from our work to “recharge” and to enjoy what we have done.  Days off and vacations are necessary for us who are not infinite in our energies and abilities.  Simply taking a day off, going on vacation, or enjoying a leisure activity is not enough, however.  While those things may refresh our bodies and minds, our souls require time spent with God, especially in the Eucharist.  Should a vacation or a summer activity ever pull us away from Sunday Mass or daily prayer, we then would find ourselves worshipping the idol-gods of our own making.  (Recall the Israelites’ golden calf…)  So, as the summer may bring rest and leisure into our lives, so may it also bring a renewed sense of what it means to rest in the Lord, not only on Sunday but on every day.

The Reverend Jeffery S. Loseke is a Priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and is currently the pastor of  St. Charlccn_father-les Borromeo Parish in Gretna, Nebraska.  Ordained in 2000, Fr. Loseke holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome and is working to complete his doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in interdisciplinary leadership through Creighton University in Omaha.  In addition to parish ministry, Fr. Loseke has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, taught high school theology and college-level philosophy, and has been a presenter for various missions, retreats, and diocesan formation days across the country.

Art: The Picnic by George Goodwin Kilburne, circa 1900 (Wikimedia Commons)

Our Mission – like Saint Paul’s – is the Salvation of the World

More than daily monotony, each moment is laced with the potential to change the world by changing those whom we encounter.

by Rev. Jeff Loseke

More often than not, the Second Reading at Mass each Sunday comes from one of the letters of St. Paul.  In many ways, he is a model for us to embrace and to follow, especially 470px-DUJARDIN_Karel_St_Paul_Healing_the_Cripple_at_Lystrain our own identity as Christians, who, like Paul, never met Jesus in the flesh.  There can be no doubt that Christianity would look very differently today—if it existed at all!—without the efforts of St. Paul and his companion missionaries.  For this reason, the  Church has always regarded St. Paul as a model for evangelization and as one of the principal architects of the Church.  Saint Paul’s missionary strategy (i.e., establishing a communal identity among new believers) is precisely what the Catholic Church has always understood as “Sacred Tradition.”  Saint Paul and the other Apostles modeled their style of leadership after that of Jesus Christ and passed it on in a living Tradition.  Jesus gathered His closest followers around Himself and, for a period of about three years, established a way of life that would give them their identity as His Apostles.  He did not hand them a book of instructions; rather, He enjoined upon them a way of life, a communal identity, a Sacred Tradition.  They in turn passed it on to the next generation.

We ourselves should be very aware of this communal aspect of the Sacred Tradition, especially in the weekly ritual of Sunday Mass.  In the Church, there is an old adage: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.  In essence, it declares that what we pray is what we believe, and what we believe is how we live.  Ritual, belief, and way of life are intimately tied together.  I know that part of my role as a Priest is to help men and women discover who they are in Jesus Christ.  In so doing, I realize that I am helping them to be defined by their faith in God, which ought to have a concrete effect on their lives when they leave the church building.

At the end of Mass, we are instructed by the minister to go forth and to spread the Good News by the way we live our own lives.  In essence, we are sent out on mission, just like St. Paul for the salvation of the whole world.  This is certainly something we must reflect upon in our daily lives, especially in moments of difficulty or tedium.  We ought to be reminded just how important each and every opportunity is.  More than daily monotony, each moment is laced with the potential to change the world by changing those whom we encounter.  I imagine St. Paul and his companions recognized this when they chose to do very ordinary things in quite extraordinary ways, thus breathing new life into Christianity.  Why should one think that today we are any less able to have as profound an effect on the world as St. Paul did if it is the same Jesus Christ at work in all of us?  With St. Paul, we too can say, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20a).

 

The Reverend Jeffery S. Loseke is a Priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and is currently the pastor of  St. Charlccn_father-les Borromeo Parish in Gretna, Nebraska.  Ordained in 2000, Fr. Loseke holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome and is working to complete his doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in interdisciplinary leadership through Creighton University in Omaha.  In addition to parish ministry, Fr. Loseke has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, taught high school theology and college-level philosophy, and has been a presenter for various missions, retreats, and diocesan formation days across the country.

 

Art: St Paul Healing the Cripple at Lystra by Karel Dujardin, 1663 (Wikimedia Commons)

%d bloggers like this: