catholicPittsburgh.org

A reflection on Holy Thursday

by Joe Mertz

Recently, I was at a meeting of parents of 2nd graders preparing for First Holy Communion. The talk told me that Eucharist was important. It clarified how the Catholic view of Eucharist is different from the Protestant views, and stated uncritically that the Catholic view was the correct one. It explained that the subtleties of Eucharist to Catholics lie in it not being just a memorial of Christ, but Christ. And conversely how the Eucharist is a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice, but not Christ’s sacrifice, because that was already done once and for all. I was reminded of the challenge of counting angels dancing on the head of a pin. (Actually, I read the real controversy was over how many angels could stand on the point of a pin. I need to find out which is really true!)

I kept thinking through the talk, “But doesn’t this mean something to you? How is it important to you? How does it touch your life? How can I tell my daughter about it so that she sees the beauty, the love, the relationship. Isn’t it all about relationship? Isn’t it Christ coming to each of us in a very explicit, deliberate, and personal way?”

I read a book a few years ago, The Little Notebook by Nicole Gausseron, in which she describes the mystical experience she had with Christ in the Eucharist over nearly a year. She felt him, saw him, and he changed her life!
In the last 30 seconds of this 70 minute meeting, the religious education coordinator (a different speaker) pitched a book called My First Holy Communion (I think it is the one by Melissa Musick Nussbaum, and illustrated by Laura Montenegro). While parents were already rising, putting on their coats, and heading for the door, she spoke passionately about how it spoke to children, that the people in the book were represented as very diverse, and that within that diversity, Eucharist brings us all together.

I thought “Wow. There it is. Hidden almost as a footnote to the meeting. I’ll have to check out that book.”

If nothing else, the meeting did present a challenge. What does Eucharist mean: to me, to my family, to us as a community? And Holy Thursday brings me back to that question.