Christianity is Communion
In the much-talked about movie The Priest, we have a priest who gets into a scandal for picking up a man and having sex with him. We also have a father who molests his own daughter. And we have parishioners who judged everything that happened.
The film ends with a mass. In that mass, everyone is there: the father who had raped his daughter, the mother of the molested child, the daughter herself. And the priest who had been publicly decried in the scandal and had been asked to leave the parish.
In the very dramatic last scene we are shown the daughter embracing the priest.
I guess that embrace is the whole meaning of Christianity. What people exclude, Christianity includes. Ultimately, Christianity is communion. Christianity is community– it is for those who have been driven away and are outcasts. For those who have sinned terribly. Even for those who judge. And us who judge those who judge.
This is the meaning of Christianity. It is the embrace given by a victim to a fellow victim. It is the embrace of a sinner to a fellow sinner.
We however persist in our understanding of what the world should be. And so we continue to exclude those Jesus had included. We continue to drive away from our tables those Jesus had dined with and communed with. Those unlike us: they who do not look like us, they who do not wear the same clothes we wear, or do not have our skin color, or they who do not speak as well as us. Or those we think have graver sins.
We come up with all sorts of complicated barriers: social, economic, cultural, racial, even gender and language. We are comfortable with these barriers because it gives us the excuse not to reach out.
And so we look at the Christianity we have and it has become more and more a Christianity of personal piety and devotion. We pray the rosary and we’re ok. We visit the Blessed Sacrament and everything is fine. We pray our hour of daily prayer and life goes on.
These are all good of course. But Christianity is not just that. Christianity is communion! “Jesus called the 12 disciples! And Jesus ate with the outcasts and sinners! And Jesus sent the 72 out giving them power over unclean spirits! Jesus prayed, yes, but on the night He was betrayed, He took bread and the cup filled with wine, raised His eyes up to heaven, and gave these to His disciples, Take these and do this in remembrance of me…”
Vatican II, I think, says it. The Church is communion. Everyone is invited. Everybody is welcome. Unlike popular belief, you do not have to be at your Sunday’s best. The poor man can sit beside the rich man—unless the rich man’s bodyguards block him. But the point is made. In the Eucharist there are no distinctions. That’s what it was meant to be.
And the Eucharist can be lived out in our lives. Mother Teresa for example lived it in her life. For her, there were no distinctions. For her everyone was invited and welcome.
Isn’t that the final question in the Final Judgment? “Did you care for those in need?” Was everyone invited? Was everyone welcome? That is the only question. Nothing about your average yearly income. Nothing about being pure. Nothing, even, about going to mass.
Just that question.
Did you care for those in need? Was everyone welcome and invited?
Are you ready to answer?
Whatchathink?!