Every Eucharist is a Celebration of Healing and Life
Every Eucharist is a celebration of healing and life. Life is the most precious gift we have. It is the one gift that we want to hold onto. It is the gift we find most difficult to let go of. If life is that precious to us just think how precious it is to the One who is the source of life. At every Eucharist we proclaim that God is the source of life, the conqueror of sin and death. At the Eucharist we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad! The reason we gather on a Sunday is because it is Resurrection Day, Alleluia! We have been blessed with the gift of eternal life. Praised be Jesus Christ!
We also recognize that the Eucharist is a sacrament of healing: ‘Lord, only say the word and I will be healed.’ We hear in today’s gospel a miracle of healing and the joy and amazement at a young girl being raised from the dead. God does not will suffering on anyone. God does not inflict suffering on anyone. Suffering and death is not God’s will. We see God’s will in today’s gospel: to heal and to restore to life. Sickness, suffering and death are part of our human condition, this we have to accept. But God in Jesus has made it clear that they will not have the last word; they have been redeemed by his cross and resurrection. Our God did not immune himself from suffering and death but embraced them upon the cross and transformed them through his resurrection. This we celebrate at every Eucharistic feast: ‘By dying you destroyed death, by rising you restored life. Lord Jesus, come in glory!’
On June 19th we began the Year for Priests. This year, proclaimed as such by Pope Benedict, coincides with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Vianney, more familiarly known as the Cure de Ars, patron saint of priests.
Jean-Marie Vianney was born into a peasant family in Dardilly, France in 1786. With great difficulty he became a priest at age thirty-two and, in 1818, he was appointed parish priest of Ars-en-Dombes, a remote town where the faith was no longer celebrated and practiced. He brought the gift of faith back to life through the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). His parish was known as the ‘hospital of souls’ because thousands came to celebrate God’s mercy and love. Father Vianney would spend up to sixteen hours a day in the confessional! He died in 1859 and was canonized in 1925.
In his letter to priests, to mark the beginning of this special year, Pope Benedict quotes Jean Vianney who said that “the priesthood was the love of the heart of Jesus.” The Pope goes on to say: “The Cure de Ars was quite humble, yet as a priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people: “A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy. Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put him there in that tabernacle? The priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest.
Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest, always the priest.” These words, welling up from the priestly heart of a holy pastor, might sound excessive. Yet they reveal the high esteem in which he held the sacrament of the priesthood. Dear priests, Christ is counting on you. In the footsteps of the Cure de Ars, let yourselves be enthralled by him. Be heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace.”
- Fr. Gary Dowsey
