From the Blog Posts of MSI Press Authors: Dr. Dennis Ortman Reflects on the Eucharist
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BODY OF CHRIST
“The
bread that we break,
is
it not a participation in the body of Christ?”
--I Corinthians 10:
16)
When I left the priesthood many years ago, I was
disillusioned with the Catholic Church. I was looking to belong to a loving
family. In my distressed state of mind, I experienced the Church as a
dysfunctional family. For a few years I was estranged from the Church, and from
all institutional religion. However, I felt something missing. So, I went to
churches of various denominations, looking for a home. Eventually, I found a
Catholic parish that filled that need. I discovered that being a Catholic since
childhood was in my bones. It was a truth about myself I could not deny.
After leaving the ministry, I became a psychologist. A life
of service still motivated me. My passion was, and still is, to understand the
dynamics of personal transformation and to accompany my patients on their
journeys toward healing and growth.
I have come to believe there are three general steps on the
path to healing and growth: wake up, clean up, and show up (as the American
philosopher Ken Wilbur summarizes it). The question that occupies all of us
through life is the inescapable question: Who am I? We seek to know ourselves
better. To know ourselves, we must first wake up to our true identity.
Secondly, we must confront our false self, our character defects and
constructed self-images, which interfere with an accurate self-knowledge. We
clean up, throwing out what is harmful. Then, we act according to our deepest
values, letting our true self show up. The Alcoholic Anonymous program
expresses this threefold process as: “trusting God, cleaning house, and helping
others.”
I am convinced that authentic religion overlaps with
psychological health and wholeness. It is not about accepting the right
beliefs, following the commandments, or participating in rituals. Authentic
religion is about personal transformation, becoming our authentic self. Jesus
proclaimed, “Reform your lives and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1: 15) Beliefs,
morality, and rituals, of course, have a place. They help us know ourselves at
a deep level and live according to our highest ideals. At the deepest level, we
come to know God in knowing ourselves. We also encounter our true selves in
meeting God.
EUCHARISTIC BODY
Over the years, I have come to appreciate the importance of
the Eucharist in aiding me to be my true self. In celebrating the Eucharist, we
become who we are, as individuals and a community, the body of Christ. Let me
explain this three step process of transformation that occurs at every Mass:
1.
WAKE UP:
The Eucharist is, first of all, a meal. We gather to be fed
by God’s Word in the Scriptures and with the body and blood of Christ. At this
meal, our whole history as a people of faith is recounted. We look backward to
the Jewish Passover meal, celebrating their freedom from Egyptian slavery, and to
Jesus’ last supper, celebrating our redemption from sin and death. We also look
forward to the heavenly banquet, our true destiny. Our identity is embedded in
our history. If we want to know who we are, we ask ourselves where we came from
and where we are going.
What is the food that is served at this meal? It is God’s
presence in the Word, in the bread and wine, and in the community. God gives
Himself to us in Christ. We call it the “real presence.” We celebrate God’s
love in Christ present in every moment of our lives, and not just at the
Eucharistic gathering. As St. Paul says, “What can separate us from the love of
Christ? Trial or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger,
or the sword?...Yet in all this we are more than conquerors because of him who
has loved us.” (Romans 8: 35-37) In a world dominated by so much hatred and
despair, this is a message we desperately need to hear.
Receiving God’s self-communication, we are awakened to who
we really are. Common sense and our faith tradition tell us, “We become what we
eat.” If we have a steady diet of junk food, our health declines. If we are fed
by the body and blood of Christ, we become another Christ. He dwells within us.
St. Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I now live is
not my own; Christ is living in me.” (Galatians 2: 19-20).At the Eucharist, we
come to know ourselves at the deepest level as another Christ, the visible body
of Christ in the world today. What a great dignity!
We can easily forget who we are if we are not regularly
reminded of this truth. In our society, we are fed the junk food of hatred,
lies, prejudice, and self-centeredness. Many of us describe ourselves as
“spiritual, but not religious.” That means we seek God on our own apart from
any faith community. Many of us, as I once was, are disillusioned by
institutional religion. However, the danger is that if we separate ourselves
from the company of spiritual seekers, we risk taking on the values and beliefs
of our secular society. We come to see ourselves as rugged individualists,
separate from others, and intent only on pursuing our own materialistic needs.
2.
CLEAN UP:
We are each the body of Christ, but a body broken. We begin
each Eucharist with an acknowledgement of our sinfulness and pray for God’s
forgiveness. Such a confession is not a wallowing in negativity, in our
sinfulness. It is a realistic embracing of our imperfections. We are relieved
of the burden of being perfect on our own, of having constantly to prove
ourselves. Honesty impels us to admit we fail often and are better than the
behavior we exhibit.
This confession of sin also expresses our faith in a loving,
forgiving God. He is not the harsh Judge many of us imagine Him to be. St. John
reminds us, “Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him my not die but may have eternal life. God did not send
the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through him.” (John 3: 16-17) Jesus came to heal this broken body.
We do not appreciate our innate goodness, because our vision
is obscured by the clouds of our character defects. Our pride, anger, envy, and
so forth are not our true nature. These faults, arising from the self-centered
ego, shape the false self that guides our life. We cling desperately to this
image and make ourselves miserable in the process. We also distance ourselves
from our true awakened self, the self who makes us free and joyful.
If we are honest with ourselves and take full responsibility
for our lives, we know we have to examine our consciences regularly, and not
just at Mass. If we neglect this fearless and searching moral inventory, we
risk falling into the victim role so prevalent in our society. Many of us cling
to an image of innocent self-righteousness and blame others for all the
troubles in the world. Our complaining and flight from personal responsibility
only increase our sense of helplessness. Participating in the Mass, we are
reminded of the ongoing need to be responsible and clean house.
3.
SHOW UP:
We are each another Christ, and together the body of Christ.
No one is excluded. “You, then, are the body of Christ. Every one of you is a
member of it,” St. Paul reminds us (I Corinthians 12: 27). What affects one
member affects all. Our identity is in relationship, not as solitary
individuals. So we gather together at Mass to sing songs of praise and
thanksgiving to God. We celebrate our communal identity and destiny. Everlasting
joy is our birthright. We reenact the vision of heaven described in the Book of
Revelation (7: 9-14): “I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could
count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue….They prostrated themselves
before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: ‘Amen. Blessing and glory,
wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and
ever. Amen.’”
The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving.” At Mass we recall
that everything we have is a gift. We do not earn life or love. All is grace.
In our prayers of thanksgiving, we celebrate our abundance, which inspires our
generosity. We give without counting the cost because we are aware of the
inexhaustible source of love in God. In contrast, our society focuses on what
is missing, always craving for more and never satisfied.
Jesus gave us the command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Mark 12: 31) That means loving the other as another self, who is another
Christ. In Matthew’s vision of the last judgment (25: 31-46), the Son of Man
(Jesus) praises those who cared for those in need, saying, “Whatever you did to
one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” I am not another Christ
alone. We all are. The Hindus have a beautiful gesture of mutual respect. They
bow to each other with praying hands and say, “Namaste.” It means, “The divine
in me honors the divine in you.”
The Mass is also a sacrifice. We reenact the sacrifice of
the cross, Jesus’ total self-giving that we might have life. He commanded,
“Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15: 12) The cross is the model
and measure of true love. At Mass we offer our lives in union with the
sacrifice of Christ. We dedicate ourselves to loving God and others as he did.
In contrast, our society has an accounting system measure of love. We are
taught to earn love, count the cost of giving, and expect a return on our investment.
The word Mass comes from a root word meaning “sending
forth.” The Eucharistic celebration ends with the dismissal, “Go in peace to
love and serve the Lord and one another.” We are sent forth to show the love of
our invisible God. Paul warns, “He who eats and drinks without recognizing the
body eats and drinks a judgment upon himself.” (I Corinthians 11: 29) We build
up the broken body of Christ in all our daily activities. If we do not
participate in the Eucharist, we risk being captivated by the prejudiced view
of exploitative relationships prevalent in our society, where selfishness
masquerades as concern.
Jesus shocked the crowds when he proclaimed, “I am the
living bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live
forever.” (John 6: 51) Many found this intolerable language and walked away. God’s
ways are not our ways. Today, many have walked away. I did not appreciate the
depths of this mystery until I suffered my dark night of doubt. The Eucharist
can be a privileged moment in which we discover who we really are and be
transformed, if we have faith. Christ nourishes us with his body and blood that
we may become his body in the world, destined to live forever.
Anger Anonymous
Kops-Fetherling International Book Awards/winner in psychology (Anger Anonymous)
American Bookfest Best Books Awards finalist (Anxiety Anonymous)
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