Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Cycle A
June 18,
2017
A Rabbi’s Embrace
There
is a story about a six-year-old Jewish boy named Mortakai.
Mortakai
was refusing to go to school. Each day,
his mother would take him to school, but as soon as she left, he ran back home.
Mortakai’s
mother would then bring him back to school once again. This scenario kept happening day after day and
finally, in desperation, the parents contacted their rabbi.
The
rabbi said, “If the boy won’t listen to
words or to reason, bring him to me.”
And so, the parents took young Mortakai to the rabbi.
They
entered the rabbi’s study and the rabbi, without saying a word, simply picked
up the boy and held him to his heart for a long time. And then, without speaking, the rabbi set the
boy down.
Amazingly,
what words did not accomplish, a silent embrace did accomplish. Mortakai began going to school willingly and
went on to become a famous scholar and rabbi.
God’s Embrace
One of
our current Catholic writers, Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, says that the story of
Mortakai expresses something very core about the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Through
the Eucharist, God physically embraces us and holds us close to his divine
heart. No question, words are important
but at times, but they often do not go deep enough and they fail us.
For
example, the older I get, the more I realize that it is important that I am
just there with an embrace or a handshake with a person who is grieving the death
of a loved one. My presence is a spiritual
embrace that communicates more than my words.
Now we
all know that Jesus makes powerful use of words. This is why the Scripture is so important here
at Mass and why we listen especially to Jesus’ words in the gospel.
But
even Jesus’ words have limits and so he resorts to another language – the
language of ritual and action. This is
what the gift of his Body and Blood in the forms of bread and wine is all about.
The
Eucharist is Jesus doing what that rabbi did for young Mortakai. It is Jesus’ physical embrace, holding us close
to his heart.
A Parent’s Embrace
The author Ronald Rolheiser offers another example.
He says that there often comes a time, usually late in the
afternoon, when a little child can get very tired. Maybe the child has been to pre-school and
did not get much of a nap.
At times like these, a child can get very cranky. He doesn’t know what he wants or what to do
with himself.
She may torment the dog and begin to whine. At the same time, the parent is also tired
and may begin to reprimand the child.
But the child just whines all the more and now the parent
knows exactly what to do. They just scoop
up the child and without speaking, just hold the child close their heart.
The Eucharist’s Embrace
Again, Rolheiser
says that this is a good image of the Eucharist.
Sometimes
we come to Mass, to the Eucharist, feeling tired, strung out, lonely,
preoccupied, or worried. There are times
when we have no words to say and cannot really hear any words.
And
then, in that moment, God touches us and picks us up. In that moment, only physical touch and
embrace will work.
This is
why God, in Jesus, gives us the Eucharist.
This is God’s divine, physical embrace.
So, no
wonder that the Eucharist is so powerful.
Here we find inner comfort for our anxiety and upsets.
Here we
find strength for our tiredness and searching.
That is what the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, is for us: the
divine embrace that communicates without any words at all.
