Heroic Self-Giving

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Compassionate self-giving and suffering of the innocent often go hand in hand.  Our hearts are especially tugged when we witness the unmerited suffering of innocent people. 

We have recently seen such suffering with cyclones in Myanmar, earthquakes in China, and fires, floods, and tornadoes here in the US.  There is a natural outpouring of compassion to instances of unmerited suffering such as these.  It is when we humans see suffering as uncalled for, as unmerited that we are stirred to our greatest actions of kindness. 

An example of this self-giving that touches our very own community of Gretna is the self-forgetful, self-giving love recently shown between a local father and his daughter. 

This daughter needed a new kidney.  Earlier this month she got that kidney from her dad.  I can think of no more poignant human example of self-giving love in the midst of unmerited suffering than the gift of a father’s kidney to his very own little girl.  Real life experiences such as these are reflections of the self-giving love of Christ within us all.  

This local father gave his daughter a gift of himself.  In an even greater act, Jesus Christ gives himself to us as gift through Eucharist.  Today, with the Feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrate this self-giving of Christ to his church.  He gave us his very own Body and Blood to nourish and sustain us on our spiritual journey toward him.  Without it, our spiritual vitality would be impaired.  With it, we are fortified with the wherewithal to participate in supernatural life.

What does it mean to have a gift of a person?  Most of the time, gifts are of THINGS, not persons.  But, it is often hard to give some THING to someone without causing both joy and disappointment.  Gifts of things have a way of transitioning from a blessing -- to an entitlement – to a disappointment; much like what happened with God’s gift of manna to the Israelites after their Exodus from Egypt referred to in today’s first reading and gospel. 

Many of us have experienced this ratcheting up of expectations from one received item to the next.  No matter how long we continue this process, we generally find ourselves falling short of ever reaching that state of final full satisfaction.  This is clear evidence that our deepest longing is not for something, it is for someone.  

Today’s gospel is certainly about self-giving; the self-giving of Christ.  Jesus said, “I am the living bread”.  He did not say I have the living bread.  Had he said that, we could have asked him for IT.  But, we see in this instance that the gift and the giver are one and the same.  So, rather than ask him for IT, we must ask for HIM, personally.

Our Lord says in today’s gospel, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives continually in me and I in him.”  Christ is to live in us, but we also are to live in him.  There is here a mutual indwelling that is somewhat hard to understand.

This new life of Christ in us is like the flame under a pot of water.  There is a sense in which the flame is in every part of the water, although the flame itself occupies none of the space that the water occupies.  As the movement of boiling water is due to the superior energy of the flame, the activation within us of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is due to the superior life and energy of Christ within us.  As Eucharistic people fortified with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we can now do that which we could not otherwise have done.

This double necessity that Christ should live in us and we should live in him brings us to the very heart of another truth about our Catholic faith.  Our partaking of Christ in Eucharist forms us into the Mystical Body of Christ. 

Understanding the reality of the Mystical Body of Christ is difficult.  Most difficult is our acceptance of the fact that the Church really means what it says in this regard.  It is difficult for us to comprehend that we are actually incorporated into the Body of Christ.  We feel unworthy for such magnificence.  

But it is true.  We are his hands, his eyes, his voice!  In receiving Christ Our Lord in Eucharist, we are in the most profoundest sense one with him and one with one another.  Different members have different functions, but like any other body, they are meant to work together pursuant to an order and a proportion and a complexity of divine origin.

God wills that his Mystical Body be his agent for dispensing and receiving his gifts.  God has shown us with overwhelming evidence that He wills to give his gifts to creatures through other creatures so that we may learn by receiving God’s gifts from one another and by giving God’s gifts to one another.      

Some of us demonstrate heroic instances of compassionate self-giving like the sustaining, life-giving gift of a father’s kidney to his daughter.  Others are examples of sustained, lifelong self-giving like those lay ministers recognized last week by Archbishop Curtiss in a ceremony in Fremont.  One of those honored was our very own Liturgist.  These and the many other instances of self-donation are glimpses of the more perfect self-giving that Our Father offers us though the gift of his son, Jesus Christ.   

As much as a young girl values the donated kidney of her father, as much as a faith community values the donated time and energy of its ministers, so much more must we value the source of these gifts, the complete donation to us of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

These other donations are tantalizing glimpses of the more perfect self-giving gift of Christ.  His donation not only nourishes us in this life, it gives us the supernatural grace necessary to live in the next one as well.

With much celebration, let us joyfully receive this living bread that came down from heaven and let us compassionately reflect the self-giving of its author in our own lives.  Let us recognize for what it is, the heroic, compassionate self-donation made by OUR Father of this life giving bread to us, HIS children.  And he did this even in spite of our lack of innocence.  Most bountiful is his love for us!  We are truly blessed!

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