Lectio the Liturgy: Sunday, November 19, 2023

Julie Storr shares a reflection on the Prayer after Communion for Sunday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time.

This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Prayer after Communion for Sunday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time.

We have partaken of the gifts of this sacred mystery, humbly imploring, O Lord, that what your Son commanded us to do in memory of him may bring us growth in charity. Through Christ our Lord.

I’ve been thinking a long time about the gifts of the sacred mystery. We often think of the mysteries as something that we will not understand in this life unless it is revealed to us. And that is true. However, before Mass recently, I was thinking of how or even where the sacred mysteries are.

What came to me is, what if three colors were assigned to everything? Inanimate objects would be green, human life would be red, and the supernatural would be white. The colors would not mix to create one color but remain separate and we would see all three. Right now, in our natural vision, we don’t see the white, we don’t see the supernatural among us, but it is there. It isn’t floating above us like Willy Wonka’s WonkaVision chocolate bar flying over our heads. The white is Heaven, the angels (good and bad), and the Presence of God. These are not out of our reach; they are among us.

We know that Jesus was born, lived, and died in the natural world. Many people have lived and died as well, but there is something quite different about the life of Jesus. His life, death, and resurrection did happen in time; however, it also transcends time. The sacred mysteries surround us. In fact, they are so close that when the bread and wine become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus, which we receive through this charity of Jesus, we receive the supernatural into the natural, our own body.

The memorial of Jesus at the altar is the representation of his ultimate act of caritatis. #LectioTheLiturgy #CatholicMom

No one knows charity better than Jesus. In the Latin form of the prayer, for the word charity, we find the word caritatis. Charity is not just any love; it is sacrificial love. The memorial of Jesus at the altar is the representation of his ultimate act of caritatis.

We can’t give what we don’t have and when it comes to this sacrificial love, we don’t have it unless we accept it. It’s sometimes easy to get all caught up in thinking that my failures and my need for help are too much for God (sometimes that is just our pride), however, this realization should drop us to our knees in humility. This is why in the prayer we humbly implore the gift of charity. In our prayer, we are on our knees, and we are begging God to fill us with love, but not just any love, we ask to be filled with His sacrificial love. When we accept it, not only can we be healed, but we can bring healing to others.

charity social