June 4, 2021 •
Tracy Earl Welliver
We all know that person, don’t we? Hey, maybe we’ve even been that person.
“I have a great relationship with God, but I don’t go to church regularly. God and I are on good terms. I can talk to Him just fine on my own.”
There isn’t anything false in these statements. It’s important to have an intimate, even conversational prayer relationship with God. But the problem with this attitude is that it implies that churches don’t matter. Community worship doesn’t matter. Today, we are reminded exactly why that is so untrue. Why we need our parishes, our priests, and each other.
The Body and Blood of Christ — that’s what it’s all about. If it’s not about that, it’s not about anything. If we don’t have the Eucharist, we’re just like the ancient priests, making sacrifices that don’t have the power to redeem anybody.
Where do we receive the Body and Blood of Christ? For most of us, it’s in our parishes. The altar of sacrifice is also the table we gather in front of, as a family, to become one with Christ in the truest and realest way possible, recreating the scene in the Upper Room over and over again every time Mass is celebrated.
The disciples were commissioned by Christ to prepare the Upper Room for the Last Supper. How can we take up that work ourselves? How can we strengthen the bonds in our spiritual family? How can we serve our parish, always remembering that the table is not meant to be set only for two?
— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS
