Pope Francis and Bishop Peter Jugis have called on us to travel with them and with the Holy Spirit on a journey to grow as a Church in communion, participation and mission. This is the call of the Synod process that we have entered in the Church throughout the world.
In fact, this is the journey that the Second Vatican Council called us to, as it reminded us that all are called to holiness and to bring the Gospel to all people and all places.
For too long, it was thought the call to holiness and to mission was something only for priests and religious, not for every member of the Body of Christ. Yet as St. John Paul II wrote in “Redemptoris Missio” more than 30 years ago, “missionary activity is a matter for all Christians, for all dioceses and parishes, Church institutions and associations.” Jesus came to lead all people to salvation, and through the Holy Spirit He has entrusted us to continue His work in the world.
What has Christ given us to empower us to become the people who will live out this mission? I want to suggest that the Holy Spirit works in a special way through the Mass to form us in communion and participation so that we might go on mission to the world. Unfortunately, it is often too easy to be near-sighted in our understanding of the Mass. It is too easy in our culture of individualism to think of it as being about me and Jesus, about my listening to the Word and my receiving the Eucharist. Yes, I am in the parish congregation and the lectors, acolytes, deacon and priest are there, but they are serving me and my family, just as the religious educators are serving my children in a different way. If this is my understanding, I am missing what is most essential. Christ is forming us together into the
Body of Christ to continue His work in the world. Jesus is forming a “we” – a community of love and service.
The New Testament and the Fathers of the Church speak of Christians as a “koinonia” (Greek) or a “communio” (Latin) – a communion with Christ and with one another, bonded together with the bishops. The bond was both effected by and made manifest in Eucharistic communion among the churches throughout the world.
We all are one body in Christ, joined together with all who are baptized into Christ – both the living and those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.
We are one with those in heaven and those in purgatory, united as one in Christ.
The problem comes when we don’t discern the body, as St. Paul puts it in First Corinthians. In the early Church, the Eucharist was part of a communal, agape meal. Unfortunately, the Corinthian community had divisions in which some came early and ate and drank, not waiting for the poor whose work kept them later.
Often there was nothing left for them. This problem also showed up in the community of James, where the rich in their finery were given the best seats while the poor were told to stand or sit on the floor (James 2:1-9). In both cases, some in each community did not understand the communion that they shared. “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:29).
Communion unites us with Christ and with one another – not just during the particular Mass we partake in, but with all who gather around the Eucharistic table. As
St. John Paul II said, “A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as ‘those who are a part of me.’ This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship. A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others. … A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to ‘make room’ for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other’s burdens’ (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy” (“Novo Millennio Ineunte,” 43).
To live out communion is our mission, so that the world might see and believe. May it be said about us, as was said about the early Christians: “See these Christians how they love one another.” Is this what is experienced in our parishes each Sunday? What is my contribution to the atmosphere of love? How do we make ours a welcoming parish? For example, do I resent it when other people sit in “my” pew? Are we aware of and helpful to the elderly, the disabled, and the families with little ones at Mass? Do we take it to heart when the priest at the beginning of Mass greets us with “The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all”?
We are all called by grace into the communion of love. Since we are not so good at living out the communion of love, we pray together the Penitential Act and ask God for mercy. We then pray together the Gloria as a “people of good will.” We embody a people striving to be at peace with all, glorifying God by following Jesus, the Son of the Father, who through the Paschal Mystery makes us children of God and brothers and sisters to one another. As we pray our “amens” throughout the
Mass, we are asking that we become increasingly the people whom the Spirit is forming us to be.
We then encounter the Word of God in the Scriptures. This encounter is a call to our minds and hearts to grow in understanding, in communion, and in the charity that reaches beyond the walls of the church – into our everyday lives and into the life of the world. As we prepare to encounter Jesus in the Gospel, we sign our forehead, lips and heart and pray that the Word might take root in our understanding, pour forth from our lips, and move our hearts so that we might become the People of God at work in the world, living out our mission of reconciliation, charity and peace.
John’s Gospel proclaims that Jesus is the Word who is “the light of the human race.” By taking the Gospel into our hearts and lives, we allow His “grace and truth” to drive out the darkness in us so that we might bring His light into our world. We prefigure our mission in the Prayer of the Faithful as we pray for the Church and the world, for the needs of our community and our parish, and for the living and for the dead.
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is the parochial vicar of St. Peter Church in Charlotte. This is the first of two commentaries on the Synod theme of “Communion, Participation and Mission.”