Fr. Leo's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (7/5/2009)

Dear People of Holy Name,

“Through the mingling of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” (Roman Rite)

These are the words the priest prays in the name of the community when the wine is prepared for consecration during mass. They reveal the purpose of the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, that we are to share in God’s life as he came to share in ours. For us then our relationship with God is twofold. We encounter God as he comes to us, but he always comes to us through and in the context of community. Hence there is always a vertical and horizontal dimension to our spirituality.

There is a temptation among some today to stress the vertical aspect of our relationship with the Lord and this is a direct result of the “me” generation of thinking. We see this among the very pious that make a god out of the ritual of the Mass, stressing the “sacred” so much that unbeknown to them it becomes unholy. When we concentrate more on how we hold our hands in prayer, fold the corporal, iron our cassocks and pour the wine we miss the point. Such spirituality tries to keep everything neat and in place. It creates a safe world for the participant as it stresses the “sacredness” of the mass.

In truth, living our faith is messy. We can not retreat from the experience of Jesus when we are called to continue his mission. Jesus himself was rejected by those who could not accept a horizontal dimension in their relationship with God. The water is poured into the wine and the blood of Christ was poured out on the ground for all peoples of all times. Thus we must be willing to encounter Christ in each other as we live in the messiness of human life. Relationships are never perfect, people are weak, but it is there that the kingdom of God is found and built out of the living stones of God’s people.

Each of us must discern in prayer what our mission is in God’s kingdom. Prayer is where we begin and is what sustains us in our life’s mission. Prayer makes us conscious of God and opens our minds and hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is prayer that unites us with the person of Jesus Christ and inspires us to go forth to bring his presence to all the nations. We must be people of prayer as there is no other way to know the Lord or to embrace his call to mission with him while we are in this world.

Our Evangelization experience here at Holy Name started with Awakening; coming to know the Lord in our own lives. Transformation followed where we allow that relationship with the Lord to transform us, and lastly we go forth to bring that faith to others bringing the Spirit of Evangelization to its proper realization. As a parish we have grown as a profound faith-sharing community and out of that is emerging a greater desire to reach out to make the world a better place.

I believe the Spirit is among us, and that our Liturgies are a celebration of God’s presence with us and a source of continued blessing and inspiration to continue to grow in Christ and in service of God’s people. Yes, we take more time for the sign of peace and maybe it is more than it is supposed to be. A bit messy perhaps, but it is a moment of community, expressing, making real and preparing for the next step in our journey together in the communion of Eucharist, which binds us together and prepares us to pour out our lives for each other as Christ has poured his life out for us. This is what makes the liturgy sacred, when we live what we receive, when the Eucharist becomes the verb of our lives.

Praying in front of the Tabernacle is wonderful as it is a living expression of our faith in the presence of God in Christ’s Holy Spirit. However, we must remember that the Eucharist is not a noun; it is the Spirit that moves us to live as Jesus lived and to die as he died, that we may share in his life and in his divinity.

May the Lord bless our prayer, may he make it truly sacred and fill us with the joy of his inexpressible presence, and may we allow his Holy Spirit to animate our minds and hearts to know him and serve him in all that we do. May the Lord so bless us!

In Christ’s peace, Fr. Leo