Our Holy Communion

6^th Sunday of Easter
 
Acts 15, 1-2, 22-29 / Rev 21, 10-14, 22-23 / Jn 14, 23-29 

Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles reminds us that the church grew in an atmosphere where there was a lot of debate and dissension.  Certain Christians were trying to impose Judaic law on new Gentile converts.  They wanted to impose the practice of circumcision.  A Christian had to be a good Jew.  So, there arose a great controversy led by no less a leader than the apostle Paul.  He spoke publicly against attempts to place unnecessary burdens on fellow Christians.

Disagreements happen within the church.  We know that to be true for ourselves.  There’s debate in our church about the fitness of some to approach communion.  Some in the church urge that those judged to be not Catholic enough should be refused communion. 

In this Easter season we continue to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection.  We celebrate the Lord’s new, risen life – now lived through us and among us.  So I think it would be good for us to recall what the gospels tell us about Jesus’ practice of communion.  What was his practice of table fellowship?  What kind of communion and community did he practice and want for his disciples?

The gospels tell us Jesus did not dine just with close disciples.  In fact, he ate with people who were vastly different from him.  The gospels show us a Jesus who clearly preferred diversity and who openly called into question the so-called “purity laws” – laws that would prevent him as a good Jew from sitting down at table with people considered sinners and public outcasts.  Simply put, Jesus ate with anybody and everybody.  Jesus ate with the “unfit and unworthy”.  His attitude was inclusive and his practice was to reach out to outsiders to bring them in, bring them closer, to make them be at home. 

We have a question we need to ask ourselves as church.  Should we be doing now in his name the very opposite of what Jesus did?  Our practice of communion cannot be a reward for the spiritually perfect.  We are simply not doing the Eucharist in faithful memory of Jesus when we demand of one another that we all have our acts completely together.  Jesus never did and never does make such a demand.  And if we do, then I assure you not many of us could come up the aisle to communion – including myself. 

We come to Eucharist – we come to communion – to learn how to love one another more – more like Jesus loved.  We need to learn how to fail less at loving like Jesus.  We come to Eucharist – to communion – so that God may fill us with the full force of his love and powerfully love through us.  Then we will begin to look more like the church of Jesus Christ we see in the gospels – for then we will gather to ourselves all the un-reconciled – all the un-noticed – all the un-fit.  And we will be at home.

Pope Francis reminds us:  we are to see ourselves as ministers and mediators of God’s grace – and not its managers.  In the Eucharist – in our communion we become ever more truly who we are:  the Body of Christ given for the life of the world. 

Just imagine it:  a church whose life and way of living actually takes away the sin of the world!  Let us be that church.  Let us so live as church that we take away the world’s sin and divisions.