Newsletter - June 2006
JESUS? PRESENCE
"I shall not leave you orphans" (Jn 14: 18).
Jesus said these words during the Last Supper, when he told his disciples that it was necessary for him to go, to return to his Father, after the glorification of the cross and the resurrection. Jesus wanted to assure his disciples that he would be always present among them.
What does to be present mean?
The presence of a person is true when he is seen by others; when he acts and works together with them; when he lives among them. When a person is far away from his friends, or his family, he expresses his wish to be present in spirit. It is an idea, for he really is absent.
With Jesus things are different, as far as his presence among us is concerned. It is a matter of faith. We firmly believe that he is really present among us. It is a mystical presence, but a real one.
How do we know this. Why do we believe this?
To make his presence true, Jesus left us concrete signs, which allow us to assert our belief
a) The Holy Spirit.
"I shall ask my Father,
and he will give you another Paraclete,
to be with you for ever?" (Jn 14: 16).
When he died on the cross, Jesus gave up his Spirit for all his disciples. In the evening of the resurrection, he breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20: 22). Later on, on Pentecost Day, the Spirit, sent by the Father, through his Son, descended on Mary and the Apostles, so that the Church might be born. The Spirit makes the work of Jesus present among us: he consoles, he protect, he inspires, he sanctifies. The Spirit of Jesus teaches us and makes us understand the Scriptures and all that Jesus said and did (cf. Jn 14: 26).
b) The Church.
A visible sign of Jesus' presence, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. All the baptised are members of this body, each one having his own gift and place in order to attain the sanctity to which we all are called (cf. 1 Cor 12). The Church, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, becomes the sacrament through which the benefits of Jesus' redemption are distributed and given to all her members.
c) The Eucharist.
From the beginning, after the resurrection, the Apostles and the first followers of Jesus, repeated what he did at the Last Supper, as he commanded them to do. That is, they broke the bread and drank from the cup saying: "This is my body...This is my blood?" They understood perfectly well that Jesus wanted to be present. As we understand that, through the Eucharist, we are really not left alone, orphans, but that Jesus lives among us with his Body, his power, his love.
The Church is full of the presence of Christ. The Church lives because of this. That is why she will endure until the time is complete again and Jesus will appear for his second coming.
In the meantime, we walk like the two disciples of Emmaus, with hearts inflamed by Jesus' words, and recognising him every time the bread is broken in his name.
THE SACRAMENT OF UNITY AND LOVE
The spiritual building up of the body of Christ is achieved through love. As St. Peter says: Like living stones you are built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And there can be no more affective way to pray for this spiritual growth than for the Church, itself Christ's body, to make the offering of his body and blood in the sacramental form of bread and wine. For the cup we drink is a participation in the blood of Christ, and the bread we break is a participation in the body of Christ, And so we pray that by the same grace which makes the Church Christ's body, all its members may remain firm in the unity of that body through the enduring bond of love.
We are right to pray that this may be brought about in us through the gift of the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son. The Holy Trinity, the one true God, is of Its nature unity, equality and love, and by one divine activity sanctifies Its adopted sons. That is why Scripture says that God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit he has given us. The Holy Spirit, who is the one Spirit of the Father and the Son, produces in those to whom he gives the grace of divine adoption the same effect as he produced among those whom the Acts of the Apostles describes as having received the Holy Spirit. We are told that the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, because the one Spirit of the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is one God, had created a single heart and soul in all those who believed.
This is why St. Paul in his exhortation to the Ephesians says that this spiritual unity in the bond of peace must be carefully preserved. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, he writes, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, with all humility and meekness and with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit.
God makes the Church itself a sacrifice pleasing in his sight by preserving within it the love which his Holy Spirit has poured out. Thus the grace of that spiritual love is always available to us, enabling us continually to offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him for ever.
St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop