Peace As The Name Of The Eucharistic Sacrament

4-09-2016 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (C).

SCRIPTURAL READING:

Wis. 9:13-18b
Ps 90:3-4.5-6.12-13.14.17 (R. 1)
2 Philemon 9b-10.12-17; Accl. Ps. 119:135
Gospel Lk 14:25-33.

Preamble:

Dear friends please repeat these words after me;
Thank you Jesus for your word today, Stay with me Lord Jesus as I give you my mind; help me understand your word.
Stay with me Lord Jesus as I give you my ears; help me hear your voice.
Stay with me Lord Jesus as I give you my heart; help me welcome you.
Holy Spirit, rekindle in me the fire of your love. Amen.

THEME: THE EUCHARIST: OUR SOURCE AND SUMMIT
TOPIC: PEACE AS THE NAME OF THE EUCHARISTIC SACRAMENT

The call and vocation of the disciple is to follow the lord to the very end. The prize he/she has to pay must be detachment from the things of the world. The pain is the cross of sacrifice which is characterized by the detachment from the things of the world. The gain is peace-that which the world cannot give but can only be discovered when one stays close to the lord and away from the lord.

The gospel reading of today’s mass makes this very clear. Christ Jesus is not interested in cheap invitations and discipleship. Jesus is interested in disciples who are willing to pay the ultimate prize if the message of salvation were to be carried to the world. He would not accept the second best. God would not accept any other place than first place in a man’s life. He must make clear what it meant and what it cost to be his disciple.

The detachment means one must put Christ first even before his family and himself, companionship, comfort, pleasure of family and home. This entails a decision making, a man must think and give thought to discipleship; he must count the cost and the consequences of discipleship. Christ used two parables to get His point across.

A man who wants to build a tower, first sits down to think about the project and to count the cost. Does he have sufficient resources, enough of what it takes to finish the task? He has to make sure, or else he will not be able to finish the task and will end up being mocked. The point is clear: before a person begins to follow Christ, Christ wants that person to think about it. He wants the person to be sure, absolutely sure. Can he afford to follow through; does he have what it takes to build the tower (life)? Why? Because a false profession damages the kingdom of God.

A false profession causes a. the world to mock and charge true believers with being hypocritical. B. prospective believers to turn sour. C. believers to be hampered and hindered in their ministry. D. some believers to become discouraged.

The second parable concerned two kings at war. The king being attacked had only ten thousand soldiers, whereas the king marching against him had twenty thousand soldiers. The defending king sat down and thought long and hard about his resources and the consequences. He was forced to think about the loss of life and property even if he did win. This king had to make a decision to fight against the invading king or to surrender. He had to think through the consequences both ways, the consequences of fighting or surrending.
The point of the 2 parables is clear: a man must pay the ultimate price. He must forsake all, renounce and give up all that he is and has; or else “he cannot be my disciple.” When a man counts the cost of following Christ, he needs to think about two things.

It will cost him all he is- his heart: total devotion and commitment. His mind: being permeated and controlled by Christ. His eyes: watching what he looks at. His ears: watching what he listens to. His Hands: watching what he touches and picks up. His feet: watching where he goes. His mouth: watching what he eats and drinks and says. His Desires: watching, controlling, and changing his urges and desires. His energy: committing his strength, initiative, and will to Christ. His effort and work: dedicating and centering all in Christ, using his efforts and work in the cause of Christ.

It will cost him all he has. The man must be willing to give everything he has to Christ, without watering down the cost. It is this point that will cause so many to be lost and doomed. To really follow Christ will cost the individual his Family: being put after Christ, friends: being put after Christ and centred around Christ. Home: all the comforts and extravagances. Job: being centred around Christ and being used to earn enough to give to those who do not have (Eph. 4:28). Cars: not being extravagant, so as to have more to give to a needful world. Investments: using for God’s cause. Money: taking care of personal necessities and then using the rest for God’s cause.

A man must have the salt of discipleship which is self-denial, renunciation, the sacrifice and giving, of all one is and has. Jesus said three very pointed things from verse 34-35.
A half-hearted choice is worthless. It cannot season or penetrate; it cannot help anything or anyone. In Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

A half-hearted choice is to be cast out. Salt that is worthless and useless is always thrown out, for it is good for nothing. Matt. 25:30 “and throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

A man with ears needs to hear the invitation. Hearing spiritual truth is a choice which a man must make. He chooses whether to hear or not to hear the truth. James 1:23-24 “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

Proverbs 15:31 “he who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.” The end result of one who listens and follows the lord to the end will experience peace. Peace is the gift of the Lord and that is the task of priest and bishop: to call into our age, again and again, the grace and peace of the Lord.

True Peace can only be gotten when one is detaches from the things of the world. Peace is the plight of every human being but how to attain it is the crisis we often face. If truly we need peace we must take our minds away from unsettled accounts, peace can never be found with people who allow the poison of resentment to fester and spread within them, but who are capable of getting over things, of making a new start.

The greek word for “Grace,” “Charis,” derives from the word for “Joy” an means at the same time rejoicing, joy, and also beauty, pleasure, sympathy. Where all this is present-just for once setting aside what we could perhaps still demand; beginning again; generosity of the heart, which does not keep something stored up in some corner of our memory for bringing out later-there joy can grow, there beauty springs up, there goodness shines out into the world, and peace comes to be.

The task of the priest is proclaim peace. He proclaims something we humans cannot give: the new reality that comes to us from God, in Christ, and that is more than just words and intentions. The early church understood the mystery of the Eucharist as underlying the expression “peace.”

“Peace” very quickly became one of the names for the Eucharistic sacrament, for it is there that God does in fact come to meet us, that he sets us free, that although we are debtors, guilty in his sight, he takes us in his arms, gives himself to us. And by leading us to himself, introducing us into the communion of his body, by introducing us into the same sphere of his love, by feeding us with the same bread, he also gives us to one another as brothers and sisters. The eucharist is peace from the Lord.

The first words of the Risen One to his confused disciples had been: Peace be with you (Jn 20:19). In each Eucharistic assembly what happened on the evening of Easter Day was repeated for them. The risen one came in among his disciples and spoke to them: peace be with you. In this their paschal feast, in which the church was truly alive, they experienced how the apostle’s saying is true: Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14).

Here they met with the new sphere of peace that faith had opened up-the reconciliation of slaves and free men, of Greeks and barbarians, of Jews and gentiles (Gal. 3:28). Here, they who were deeply divided one from another in the framework of the society of that time were at one, were indeed one single person-the new man, the Christ, who on the basis of the father’s love bound them all together. Gal. 3:17,28. (cf. Pope Benedict XVI: God is Near Us, p. 117-118.)

That is why the Eucharist itself was often simply referred to as “peace:” it was the place of the presence of Jesus Christ and was thereby the sphere of a new peace, the sphere of a table fellowship that transcended all boundaries and limits, in which everyone was at home everywhere. The bishops of the whole world notified their election to each other by letters of peace.

Any carrier of a letter of peace who came upon Christians somewhere was among his own family, wherever it was, a brother among brethren. It was with the inmost element of their faith, with the Eucharistic assembly, that the early Christians thus did something politically most significant: they created spheres of peace and built, as it were highroads of peace through a world of strife.

Proverbs 14:30 a heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.