Yesterday, I opened facebook, and there were many photos of mom at different times in her life. Tears flooded my eyes. I miss her. While I am blessed to go to a nursing facility and love all over my mom who has dementia, the woman she once was is hidden somewhere inside of her.
I miss sharing my spiritual journey with her, and her pearls of wisdom, like, “live the question.” I long to ask her about her experience with the changes after Vatican II. How did she get so catechized in those matters? How did she raise us with such good Catechesis so close to the closing of the council? What was the most important aspect to her? What did she think was the worst? What did her mom think about it? Did she ever think about being something other than Catholic? I suppose I know her favorite aspect of Catholicism. She loved the Eucharist. It makes me sad that in her dementia, she no longer recognizes Jesus in the breaking of the bread. She loved Eucharistic adoration. She loved helping other people fall in love with adoration. I wonder if she is the key to why I have such a fascination with the Eucharist. It is a timeless miracle that causes conversion, repentance, and unity. If we could only all see the meaning behind Jesus at the Last Supper, we might all live differently. Then, if I could fully take to heart the meaning of the Eucharist, then peace could more fully begin with me.
As I take a stab at my newly professed career as a freelance writer, I think I will start with sharing my mother’s main love with the rest of the world. I do not profess to share her full understanding of the Eucharist. Outside of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, I don’t know what she thought. At the same time, both of my papers this last semester had to do with the Last Supper in some form or fashion.
I suppose the question is – where does one begin? There are so many potential readers out, each with their own thought construct on what it means, and I respect everyone’s viewpoint. I just feel called to preach, and I hope that you feel free to enter into a discourse with me about the similarities and differences we share in regards to the Eucharist.
Having said that, I think the right starting point is the Old Testament (OT). My Gospels Professor this semester said that many people think the NT could be deleted from the Christian canon of Scripture. I was thunderstruck! How can anyone understand the New Testament (NT) without the old? I suppose some people think that you can do it. I don’t see how. From my perspective, God painted a picture of salvation history in the stories of the OT. If the brush strokes of the OT are not built into the NT painting, how can one see all of the detail? I posit that one cannot. Let me take the next few days or weeks or months to pencil in the sketch of the OT, and see if it helps you to better understand the full painting of the Eucharist, and the impact I think it has on the meaning of being a Christian.
I will close here, but hope to see you back here tomorrow as we begin with Genesis, and some of the symbolic meaning in the story of Adam and Eve.
© Debra Weldon, 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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