| The Eucharist and Love 12/11/06 George Poulo The Song of Solomon To love is to see: The first taste of love is sight. For the lover to be ravished with the beloved is to see. It is to see beyond concepts, definitions, or ideas. It is to see reality in the present moment, and to see in the present moment is to see in the Spirit and with the Spirit. It is to be free from the bondage of the past and the fears of the future. It is to be taken up with the majesty of the eternal now. This requires a mind centered and contemplative. It requires detachment and true spirituality. Thus the Eucharist, first of all, requires of us to see. Bread and wine. Something earth has given and human hands have made. Something that sustains the body, nourishes us, and satisfies us. A simple wafer and a full-bodied liquid. An offering in thanksgiving. Humble, gentle, simple, modest, poor, life-giving, free, unpretentious, bodily, tasteful, odoriferous. To love is to see. To love is to imagine: When the lover is taken up in love, the lover imagines. The beloved is no longer ordinary. Something mystical has happened. Now the past is judged by the beauty of the present moment. Now the future is pondered with expectation and excitement. There is life to the present moment encompassing the whole life of the lover. St. Benedict believed that all creation was holy, but that some things were just a little bit more holy. The Eucharist is one of those more holy things. The bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ wiping away the sins of the past and bringing hope for the future. The eyes of the lover on the beloved move the soul to contemplate beauty, truth, goodness, and life in all its dimensions. It is to see with spiritual eyes and to be fascinated with the imagination. To love is to truly imagine. To love is to unite: The lover seeing the beloved desires union...to be so much a part of the beloved that the two become one with no separation and no division. To give of oneself totally and completely. Take and eat. Take and drink. The body and blood are to be consumed. We share in the divinity of Christ who shared in our humanity. Two becoming one. The lover giving to the beloved: its power, its nature, its life, its very self. The Eucharist is a complete offering of God to humankind. We become one with God. To love is truly to unite. To love is to be free: The Eucharist empowers the beloved to be compassionate..to give of itself completely to others. Love as I have loved you, giving sight to the blind, food to the hungry, friendship to the lonely. True freedom. No longer crippled from the past and no longer fearful of the future. The Eucharist shows us that by being mindful, aware, imaginative, and united; we become free to love others as God loved us. It is seeing the divine in the ordinary people and events of life and having the power to respond. Thus we transcend space, time, and the body and gain access to God. To love is truly to be free. Love begins with sight, moves the imagination, unites, and sets free. Unless we learn how to love, we will not appreciate all that God desires for us and there is no better place to begin than in communion. Pray that God would open your eyes and hearts to learn how to love...for love is of God and God is love. Amen |
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