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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

THE POWER OF THE EUCHARIST



Jesus is the Son of God (‘He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David’ Lk.1:32) as well as God (“the Lord declared to my Lord, Take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool…” Ps.110:1-7) hence it was only the blood of this Son could appease the Father for the sins of the world inherited from Adam and Eve and our current society thus “…and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission” {Heb.9:22} and ‘…the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world’ [Jn.6:51]. Having lived on earth and understanding human frailty though did not sin (the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak) he thought them about the need for prayers in order to renew ones strength to survive all that is going to happen and to be united as well as consistent with the teachings of the Son of Man (‘stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen and to hold your ground before the Son of Man’ Lk.21:36) and gave them His body and blood as a real food for this renewal of strength (covenant) within them because “you are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials and now I confer a kingdom on you just as my Father conferred one on me: you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and you will sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel” [Lk.22:28-30]and for those who will accept Him (Jesus; Jn.1:12)through obedience to apostolic teachings (‘I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me’ Jn.17:20) in essence the apostles represented by legally ordained catholic priests/high-priests (bishops) with obedience to the apostolic teachings derived from Christ the Head of the Church (‘since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body…’ Eph.5:23) who is aware of other sheep He has which are not of this fold but must be lead by Him in His own way which will spur them to submit their WILL-POWER to listen to His voice in order to become part of the only one flock whose one shepherd He was/is/ will always remain (“and there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must lead these too. They too will listen to my voice and there will be only one flock, one shepherd” Jn.10:16).

All the seven sacraments of the Church; the body of Christ our Head (Eph.5:23) representing the seven Spirits of God (Rev.4:5) is a mystery since man cannot with his ordinary scientific and technological reasoning fathom the reason behind most of his behaviors and events around him what more of the God who created him and made him master of every other thing he created before him (Gen.1:26-27) thus ‘when they arrived he looked at Eliab and thought, this must be the Lord’s anointed now before him, but the Lord said to Samuel, take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him; God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart’ (1 Sam.16:6-7), “how hard for me to grasp your thoughts, how many God there are! If I count them them, they are more than the grains of sand; if I come to an end, I am still with you” [Ps.139:17-18] and ‘for as the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts’ (Isaiah 55:9) hence He retorted “Turn to me and you will be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By my own self I swear it; what comes from my mouth is saving justice, it is an irrevocable word: all shall bend the knee to me, by me every tongue shall swear” (Isaiah 45:22-23), ‘God said to Moses, I am he who is and he said, this is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you’ (Ex.3:14) and Jesus said “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world… anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life and I shall raise that person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink…” {Jn.6:51-59}. This will be the lot of those who believe and draw closer to the highest event of the world for any day (the Holy Sacrifice of Mass; Jn.15:13) thus ‘but to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name’ [Jn.1:12] and “the nearer you go to God, the nearer God will come to you…” (James 4:8).

For this purpose we need faith to understand the mystery behind this sacrament of the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ which has in it the Divinity, Personality, Glory, Anointing, Healing, Wisdom, Saving-justice, Soul, Body and Blood, Security, Infinite e.t.c of the Triune God. A priest Fr. M. Etekpo defined the five letter word faith as:
F—Follow all God’s guidance (Gal.5:18)
A—Act on all God’s guidance (Rev.3:20)
I—Intimacy with God (James 4:7-8)
T—Trust wholly in God (Prov.3:5)
H—Hope for the best (Ps.37:5)
Hence the scripture stated ‘Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen’ (Heb.11:1) and “Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him” {Heb.11:6} thus ‘Jesus answered, have faith in God. In truth I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, be pulled up and thrown into the sea, with no doubt in his heart but believing that what he says will happen, it will be done for him’ [Mk.11:22-23] because he has promised to honor the prayers of his faithful {‘Call to me and I will answer you; I will tell you great secrets of which you know nothing’ Jer.33:3}.
If the woman with the issue of blood touched the fringe of his cloak with faith and received healing (Mtt.9:18-26) then we who share in this Divine banquet should approach this table with faith (“since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through the highest heaven, we must hold firm to our profession of faith. For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin. Let us then have no fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help” Heb.4:14-16) for transformation in our old nature (‘the nearer you go to God, the nearer God will come to you…’ James 4:8) and Grace of fidelity to God as we carry our cross after him (‘anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me’ Mtt.10:38) as well as the power of consistency in righteousness within ourselves (‘may he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, how rich is the glory of the heritage he offers among his holy people and how extraordinarily great is the power that he has exercised for us believers; this accords with the strength of his power’ Eph.1:18-19)and support for others (“act wisely with outsiders, making the best of the present time. Always talk pleasantly and with a flavor of wit but be sensitive to the kind of answer each one requires” Col.4:5-6)
ACTIVITIES THAT WILL HELP DRAW US CLOSER TO THE EUCHARISTIC JESUS
1.       Attending the Sacrament of reconciliation with the intention, determination, zeal and passion of renouncing and rejecting those sins by changing environment; friends, videos, pictures, clothes, places, groups, illusive beliefs (‘no one can be upright’ yet the scripture stated “for though the upright falls seven times, he gets up again; the wicked are the ones who stumble in adversity” Prov.24:16) and {‘I can’t stop committing this sin’ yet we often read this passage “There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me” Phil.4:13} e.t.c that makes us to give what is sacred to dogs (Mtt.7:6).
2.       Punctuality to Holy Mass everyday whether morning or evening because it is only those who wait on him that will have their strength renewed making them sprout wings like eagles, run without being weary as well as walk without being tired(Isaiah 40:31) bearing in mind that the days are evil. The word ‘late’ for the dead is not different from the word “late” for those that keep to every other appointment apart from the one we have with GOD hence we are alive in the world but DEAD in the sight of God (‘it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ Heb.10:31).
3.       Attending Holy Mass without a unique intention (Heb.4:16) hence getting easily distracted by any slightest provocation as well as coming to church without Holy Bible or even not opening it throughout the homily period. Holy Mass should be attended with dignity, devotion and attention by both priests and the lay-faithful. Unkempt and indecent dresses makes others uncomfortable since any action (sacrifice/prayer; 1 Cor.10:31, Col.3:17) that is no rooted on love of God, neighbor and self (1 Cor.13:1-13) is void, we should learn to adjust in order to accommodate others.
4.       Worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist to avoid receiving a death sentence to the soul like what happened to Judas (‘then satan entered into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was one of the twelve” Lk.22:3) which results in committing sin with impunity while leaving on the grace of last conscience.
5.       Visit to the Eucharistic Jesus exposed with the Monstrance or within the tabernacle in order to dialogue with the ALONE (‘come to me all you who labor and are overburdened, I will give you rest…’ Mtt.11:28-29). In the Eucharist; all the fullness of the Triune God is present and is ready to give blessings, favors, intuitions, directions, peace, fertility, healing, grace, liberation, wisdom e.t.c (Heb.4:16, James 1:5) because “as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” [Jn.3:14-15].
CAUTION ON EVENTS WITHIN THE HOLY MASS:
1.       People who enter the Church without reverence for the crucifix or Christ in the tabernacle hence walking in majestically to their sits as if entering a cinema also persons who dressing attitude to church cannot de differentiated from night-club attires in the name mini/skimpy/short/very tight/V-neck/transparent clothes for both male and female as well as unkempt appearance of any form in the name of glamour/fashion.
2.       Choristers who tend to introduce Jazz into the sacred liturgy; Holy Mass is solemn and should be treated in that regards with regards to all songs rendered within the celebration while concert songs should be for stage performance. Latin rites should be prepared well for proper articulation and pronunciation in order to maintain the decorum of the celebration.
3.       Lay-readers (lectors) who climb the altar for readings/psalms/prayer of the faithful should wear their well-buttoned robes as well as cover their hair with proper head-ties and not handkerchiefs (for ladies) in order to avoid exposing ones nakedness on the altar or promoting lust via mini/skimpy/short/very tight/V-neck/transparent clothes. They should also prepare the readings ahead of time in order to proclaim the WORD and stop mumbling over the wordings.
4.       Altar knights, who are unaware of where they are standing (‘come no nearer, he said. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground’ Ex.3:5) hence talk freely, sleep on the altar as well as walk without decorum on the altar.
5.       Priests should prepare for homilies in order to avoid inducing people with sleeping tablets even though some people plan to sleep during the liturgy of the word from their homes but whatever is worth doing is worth doing well especially when they are embellished with biblical back-ups (2 Thess.3:13). The preface should also be prepared as well as taken with articulation and comments of commendation or correction from observations made within the liturgy of the word should be made at the beginning of the homily in order to remind people of where they are and what is taking place; the world’s highest event (Heb.9:22, Jn.6:51) where the Triune GOD, the spirits of the just, the angels and the living inter-mingle (Heb.12:22-24) hence blessings or curses can be taken back home (Gal.6:7) especially altar-servers, choristers disposition to singing, lectors reading/dressing modes, agents of darkness; kidnappers, thieves, side-commentators/noise-makers, indecency in dressing e.t.c.
6.       People going to receive the Eucharistic JESUS with hands akimbo as if they are going to see a dead person (corpse) or those with hands flying as if they are matching in a sports field as well as indecency in dresses worn to the altar/church with over-customized face hence putting some people into the temptation of returning to their sits for having you stand before them in the communion line or change their intention of receiving Christ because of your half-nude attire clinging next to them in the church {Gal.6:7}.

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