Transcript of Abbot Clement’s talk, Monday, 28 January 2002

        With the help of Fr. Cantalamessa, I would like to talk about Communion. St. Paul says in one Corinthian ten "the cup of blessing that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ. We though many are one body because we partake of the one loaf." From these text, these two verses, we see that the word body appears twice. First time when we partake of the bread we partake of the body of Christ, refers to Jesus. And the next time, "we though many" are one body because we partake of one loaf refers to the mystical body. So the Eucharist deals with two bodies. The vertical dimension of the mystical body - Christ, and the horizontal - you and me. So when we partake of communion we have to keep these two in mind. Of course to commune with Jesus is extremely important, he’s our life and the word body in Hebrew of course means the whole person. And since Jesus lived his whole life for us it’s his whole life, joys, sorrows, everything. 

        In the past before the change of the liturgy, we used to say at the gospel, " in illo tempore." You know, meaning that we participate in the mystery of history of salvation in every Mass. And so we participate in the mystery of Jesus’ life but since we participate also in his blood we commune with his blood we also commune with his death. Which is not only death of sin but the participation in the tremendous graces that he wants for us, transformation, gift of the Spirit and so on. But that communion then means that we commune with Christ as he is and since he’s the second person of the Trinity, we also commune with the Father. We all know the text that Jesus says "when you see me you see the Father" but even another text we should keep in mind, that is, when Jesus says in his prayer at the Last Supper that speaking of the Father, "you in me, and I in you, and we in them." So that takes care of one of our problems, right? We think God the Father’s very far away. No, he’s very available in every Mass and every Communion and we can really spend some time thanking him for the great gift of his Son and a few other things. But if that’s true of the Father, it’s also true of the Holy Spirit because the union of the person is inseparable and so every time we receive the Eucharist we also receive the Holy Spirit. Now you know this is true because of the unity of the persons but it’s also true from the mystery of history of salvation. The Holy Spirit overshadows the Blessed Mother at the Incarnation, and gives us Jesus. 

        On the cross Jesus gives up the Spirit to give the Spirit back to us. And the father’s of the church have always said that the pierced side is the outpouring of the Spirit from the church through the sacraments. And so the power of the Eucharist in Communion is especially the gift of the Spirit in a sense and remember what happened to Ezekial when the Lord took him to the valley of dry bones he asked him to call the Spirit upon these bones and of course when he called the Spirit the bones came to life, etc. Well when you go to Communion, Jesus is willingly giving you the Spirit. And St. Basil says "that it is the Holy Spirit who makes us have intimacy with Jesus." And this is the key question of our life as religious. We are happy and fulfilled to the degree that we are growing in intimacy with the Lord. As soon as we loose that contact well then of course you begin "why am I here?" "What’s God doing?" etc. and pretty soon you say bye-bye Jesus. It’s possible. And so what is this question of intimacy. It’s the key question of our life. Because we came here to live in union with the Lord and it’s through Jesus that we get to the Trinity. Well Paul tells us in chapter six of first Corinthians that when one has intercourse with a woman they become one flesh but he also says that when we are in union with Jesus we become one in spirit. So it’s a deeper intimacy and richer and fuller. Married people will tell you it’s easy to hop in bed. It’s a lot harder to work at real marriage union. They’ll tell you. And so we have the possibility of that every time we go to Mass. So one of our problems is that we don’t really take out time to really realize what we’re doing and then spend some time after Mass in thanksgiving and really spend time with what we are given. And appreciate it and open ourselves up to it. 

        But there’s the second dimension. You can’t go to Communion and not have Communion with your brother. It’s a lie. Jesus can’t be divided. He’s the head of the body. So if you don’t make an effort to embrace and accept your brother or you exclude him in anyway, then you’ re asking Jesus to choose between him and you, but he can’t. He died for all of us and each of us. And so if you get all fervent about Communion it’s like you haven’t seen a friend for a long time so you run up to them and maybe have to stand on your toes or something and kiss them in the mean time you’re standing on the guys feet, you know, with your nail boots. Cause Jesus said, "what you do the least, you do to me." So one reason why we don’t profit from Communion is we leave the altar and then don’t accept our brother. You can’t do it. So you loose what you have gained. And you know when you loose intimacy with Jesus you’re on the way to that question again, what am I doing here, "what’s it all about, Alfie", and all the questions you know. So one of the things we could do to help ourselves is really reflect on who in my life here, maybe not only here, I’m not really accepting. And next time you receive Communion take that person with you with Jesus and ask Him to teach you to love them as He does. And expect the grace then of course you will be full. You will be open to the fullness of grace that’s available. Besides we need each other. There’s no such thing as monad Christians. We are all called to have a common as well as a unique calling. We are called to be in the mystical body therefore there is a communion side, common side, community side, to our call. And so we have to grow in that if we don’t were dead. You can’t have Jesus without the mystical body. It’s not possible. It’s an illusion. And so just think next time that you receive the Eucharist and you say "Amen" it means you say "yes" to the full mystery of the body, "yes" to Jesus and "yes" to my brothers.