Sept 16

From his article, "The Ecological Significance of the Eucharist," by Daniel Horan OFM

As Sacrosanctum Concilium asserts, the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. We bring our whole selves to the Lord's table, and we go forth from that celebration renewed in our baptismal call to follow in the footprints of Jesus Christ. It is a time of renewal and recommitment, an opportunity to "be what you can see, and receive what you are," as St. Augustine famously exhorted the faithful in an exhortation on the Eucharist 1,600 years ago (Sermon 272).

When we look at the blessed sacrament, do we see the earthen, material, fragile and finite web of creation of which we are a part and God lovingly chose to enter?

When we say "amen" to the proclamation "the body of Christ," do we recognize that we are also affirming the goodness of the world that God freely created and renewing our responsibility to care for this world as it already cares for us?

When we consider the importance of the Sabbath day, do recognize what Francis proclaims in Laudato Si', that: "Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the 'first day' of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord's risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality"?

May we approach Christ in the Eucharist with a renewed sense of the ecological significance of the sacrament we share, the divine gift we receive, the communion in which we are called to participate and the duty we have as members of the body of Christ to "care for our common home." Anything short of that may constitute an ecological sin of omission at best or a form of idolatry at worst.

Prayer