Spirituality of the Readings
For the Life of the World
Let us review for a moment what has happened in the special season just gone by. I suppose this is a summary of the summaries! It leads to Sunday’s feast, which is a great remembrance of our salvation.
Holy Thursday: we saw Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, cleaning their feet, wiping off the dirt. Then on Good Friday we saw Jesus refuse the way of riches, honor, and pride, instead of following the way of love. He could have avoided the cross, but love said yes to God instead. It was the highest example of real, lasting love we know of. It showed us who God is, in the flesh.
The Sundays after Easter: After his resurrection, Jesus spoke to us about his sacrifice and his having risen from the dead, showing how these are signs of the Father’s love for the whole world. Then the Ascension. Jesus was going away, back to the Father. He was to take his love back to the Trinity—where it started—thus completing the circle. Therefore, he left us, and if that were the end of the story we would have only memories.
On Pentecost he sent his Spirit into our hearts. We ourselves, his followers, were to receive that Spirit and become his new and continuing body for the life of the world. There is only one condition: that we let go and allow his Holy Spirit dwell in our lives. Gradually we would sense with Spiritual eyes what The Holy Trinity is all about.
How, exactly, are we to let the Holy Spirit find this dwelling place within us? If we look around at our culture, it seems impossible. A lot of our neighbors have thrown away the idea of a soul altogether and even the notion of a God. Others just dive into the flesh pots, so to speak, and by doing so, deny that there is such a thing in them as a depth where some Holy Spirit could dwell.
But we do have such a depth, all of us and each of us. We just need to let go and learn to be loved by this Spirit of Jesus and of his Abba. Then it will occur to us why the Christ had promised the Holy Spirit and then sent it.
However, one unhandy fact remains. We are flesh and blood creatures, not merely spirits. Would Christ have gone away to heaven, leaving his followers to make their own way without him? No. The sacrament of his Body and Blood is the way we join in the complete life of Christ. Just as the Holy Spirit comes together with our spirit, the sacrament of Christ’s body becomes one with our own bodies in a gradual but intimate transformation.
To put it another way, we need Manna if we are to survive (First Reading)! Today’s Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ shows this. The great plan of God could get lost unless there were a Manna-like sacrament to draw our bodies and our spirits into Christ’s presence.
And so, now the Easter picture is complete. Christ remains in the world for all time. He is spiritually and physically present to the world in us, as often as we accept his body and dwell in his Spirit.
That is the reason for this final feast after Easter.
John Foley, SJ
**From Saint Louis University