It is commonly ranked as
the top professional football play of all time. Only 22-seconds remained in the
December 1972 AFC Division final. The Steelers were losing. That’s when Terry
Bradshaw pitched the immaculate reception
to Franco Harris (1950-2022) for the thrilling victory. The play is legendary;
it can be viewed on several websites.
The
Eucharist is not a legend. It is not a reenactment. It is not available on
instant replay. It is a total reality that contains the Pascal Mystery of Jesus
Christ. However, to enter into the Eucharist and absorb the real presence of
Jesus/God it is necessary to experience the world as enchanting. And that is a
problem. All of us these days are prone to misplaced enchantment. We take many
things for granted, assuming that what we don’t know can easily be learned
through a Google search. We shift our curiosity to superficialities—to rumors
about celebrities, to gossip about schoolmates, to endless detail about daily
comings-and-goings. We go to a football game, yet spend our time there
attending to our mobile device.
We modern
people have replaced awe and reverence with a blasé take on reality. Yes, a
rare eclipse stimulates our imaginations. For the most part, however, we
neglect the daily discipline of contemplation that would allow us to apprehend
the surprising movements of grace lurking within or beneath normal routines.
Nearly everything nowadays is taken at face value; and even then not taken too
seriously. Ours is an age of irony.
There
are moments when we do encounter something that defies the trivial. There are
some levels of experience that are not readily explained on the internet. What
is the meaning of death? What accounts for singular and incomprehensible recoveries?
The internet does not know. Our first reaction is to diminish such things. There
are clichés we can use to move on.
Another
reaction to uncertainty is a MAGA-style conspiracy theory. It is intolerable
that scientists can’t immediately know the cause of and simple cure for
Covid-19. So it must be a hoax and the remarkable vaccine is really
perpetuating a sinister plot. Our disposition toward the gracious and mysterious
is scant.
The Eucharist
is a complete story. It is more than a story, of course, but its enchanted
drama is prior. Without that prior enchantment, an effort to philosophically
explain the Eucharist can unintentionally have an opposite effect. Nor is
openness to enchantment aided by too much technical stress on prior
requirements for Eucharistic worthiness. No one is worthy. The Eucharist is a
gift.
The
Eucharist is a dynamic event that cannot be dissected. It has to be captivating.
Marriage is a mystery. It must be entered into without total certainty and yet
without paralyzing doubt. Marriage reveals what it contains over months and
years; in its highs and lows. In the same way, the Eucharist is a mystery. The
word mystery is not a cop-out, used
by those who lack sensible explanations. The word mystery means that which can
only be known in relationship.
Droel edits a print
newsletter, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).
No comments:
Post a Comment