ALL IS HOLY
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
June 05, 2021
Immediately after this mass I
am going to drive to Stillwater for a dinner celebration. I will be quite late in arriving, but my
presence was insisted upon, and I’m happy to go – even though it will be about
an hour’s drive each way. This occasion
s the marriage of the son of good friends of mine. I use term “marriage” rather
than “wedding” here because the couple has been officially wed for about a year
now, but on their wedding day almost nobody was able to be there because of the
pandemic. And to borrow a paraphrase of
Jesus, this couple understands that this meal must be not only celebrated for
them and their most immediate family, but “for the many.” It requires a wide circle of loved ones. You can’t
observe such an important even all by yourself.
By coincidence I was also
invited to another wedding celebration today – although that one is in St.
Louis. That one also involves the son of
great friends. The difference between
the two is that their wedding was supposed to happen last year but was postponed
– also because of COVID-19. The front
cover of their invitation said, “Let’s Try This Again!” This couple also understands that you can’t
do something this significant while being separated from “The Many.” It’s what people do in order to mark moments
that really matter. They gather – They must. We must. It’s who
and how we are. And it’s not only on those singularly unique days that we must.
On Memorial Day this past
week I was gathered around the dinner table at my sister’s home. It was the first time in well over a year
that I’d shared a meal with my 3 sisters and loved ones together, and I’ve
rarely experienced such gratitude and joy. The gathering lasted almost 5 hours. That never happened before. My
niece, who is almost 12 years old, is a foot taller that the last time I saw
her. I realized again that human beings
who are capable of love start to disintegrate when they cease to gather. I’ve always believe that, but I’m not sure
how well I ever truly understood and experienced it until this year.
For months and months at
(this) 5 pm live stream mass here at Pax there were about a half dozen of us
here for worship in an otherwise vacant building. It was very obviously a weird sensation, but
I’m now aware that it was also deadly to the soul and spirit. Many of us with Zoom fatigue now sense that
there’s something toxic about only engaging with a camera.
In conversing with
care-providers at senior residences and nursing homes recently, that have
shared stories of enormous devastation among some of the residents over the
past months of isolation. Soul-crushing
harm. People need to gather in order to
stay healthy and alive. And it’s all the
more true for people of faith.
Today is the annual solemn
celebration in our church of what is called, “The Most Holy Body and Blood of
Christ,” or what used to be called in Latin, “Corpus Christi“, did not use the
word “holy.” Because the literal meaning
of the word “holy” implies something “set apart.” Which is why, ever since the
term “Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ” was created in the year 2011, I
have wondered what might be implied by the phrase “Less Holy Body and Blood of
Jesus Christ,” and where do we discover that “most” part? It’s a
language that seeks to sort things out and to separate them – which is exactly
the opposite of what Eucharist attempts to do. The Eucharist – like the Last Supper – is meant to bring things and
people together. It is a solemn
moment of inclusion because everything that God has created is holy. There’s not any “most” as distinct from “somewhat”
holy. Any of it can be perverted or misused on account of sin, of source, but all is holy in its nature. It all belongs to
God…equally. Which is why the world’s
bishops at the Second Vatican Council deliberately did not create a priority of
“holiness” around the events of gathering for Eucharist. They specifically identified four different
ways in which the “Real Presence” of Jesus Christ are made manifest at each and
every mass, and interestingly the first one that they list was not The Bread
and The Wine. If that surprises you,
then that’s why I’m saying this. This is
our faith and not my opinion. This what
the Pope and bishops taught – under the influence of the Holy Spirit now almost
60 years ago.
The Real and Holy presence of
Christ is revealed her in church by the proclaiming of scripture, and by the
elements of bread and wine and in the person of the ordained presider (me?) and
in the gathering of all God’s holy people in the assembly – you – all of us
together. There was no attempt at
creating a hierarchy among these four as to which of them is the “Most” Holy
Body and Blood of Christ. All of
it – all of them are equally holy because in fact none of them can exist
without the others. Take away any of
them and there is no Eucharist.
In the gospel of Mark today,
Jesus’ 1st act in celebrating the Passover was not to bless and distribute
the food. It was, rather, to make
arrangements for the gathering of the people – his holy people (even though
they were as humanly flawed then as we are now). The sacred meal, then as now, is a most holy
event from the time we enter the room and not to be dissected into any one
person or thing or moment in time and named as “most.” For our Lord, the sacred
character of that meal was in the gathering – and absolutely everything that
happened while they were all assembled in faith and worship and
eating/drinking. In that regard, nothing
has changed since that evening in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
What we do here at Eucharist
is a particularly intense and deliberate and conscious focusing of what we are
to be doing at every moment of our lives when we are not in this physical
space. What we do here is “Most Holy”
because the human community and whole of creation is holy.
Which is why my marriage
dinner tonight will be most holy in Stillwater. And why my family dinner last
weekend was most holy in Minnetonka. And why whenever and however you gather with
loved ones at whatever you do together is most holy. And why this liturgical activity at Pax right
here and now, is an eruption of the most holy body and blood of Christ. All of it. Not just starting in a few minutes but already well under way,
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