Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (4/26/2009)

Dear People of Holy Name,

The ultimate gift of Easter is to share in the fullness of God’s presence. The way we as a Church celebrate and make this gift real is through the celebration of the Eucharist. It is when we take communion that we unite ourselves with the presence of Christ. Receiving Christ in the Eucharist is also a celebration of the forgiveness of all that keeps us from living in God. To receive communion is to receive the forgiveness of our sins.

St. Peter denied Christ three times, but on the road to Emmaus he comes to recognize the presence of Christ in the breaking of the bread. Peter’s sin is taken away in his recognition and reception of Christ in the Eucharist. Peter didn’t pray for forgiveness, he was struggling to understand. Forgiveness was God’s gift to Peter because God is love and Peter cared.

The very next step for Peter is to share his story so that others may come to believe and live, sharing in the presence of the risen Christ. For Peter this is stewardship, taking the gift he was given and sharing it with others. It is a natural part of experiencing the presence of God, to reach out to others with the love we have received. In our second Eucharistic prayer we pray, “We thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you.”

The Holy Spirit is with us, we already share in the life of God through Christ and when we come together to celebrate the presence of Christ in our Sunday liturgy, we open ourselves for the coming of Christ in that very action. When we receive the Eucharist we say Amen, we affirm our belief in the presence of the risen Christ. In communion we become one with the God who lives in us and our sins are wiped away. This is the gift of Easter.

The end of the liturgy sends us forth as the “new” Christ, to bring the gift we have received to others. So first we must receive the gift of God’s love, and in the receiving we will naturally reach out to others as the apostles did, giving their own lives for the Church.

Together let us pray for the gift of God’s Holy Spirit in the Easter season so that when we come to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost we may find ourselves enlivened with the fire of God’s love. I believe we are a very Spirit filled community and that Jesus walks among us in our love for one another, but I also believe that Christ has so much more he wants to share with us and that he will continue to bless us and lead us deeper into the fullness of his life.

Let us also be good stewards of the gift we have been given and strive to make our lives holy by acting in ways that make God’s love known to our families, our friends, and the stranger, and to those who may dislike or hate us. We will each find different ways to act because we have different gifts, but our message will all be the same, “You are God’s beloved and he died to share his life with you.” “Come know the Lord!”

I believe in the presence of the Risen Christ and I know his Holy Spirit is real. Now is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is here! Let us rejoice and be glad, and let us allow our joy be our gift to all we meet this week as a sign and a blessing of Christ to all.

In Christ’s peace, Fr. Leo