We are blessed with a beautiful convergence of liturgy and life this weekend! As a nation, we celebrate Father’s Day. And liturgically, we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Our Lord.
What does these two celebrations have in common? I’d say, “quite a bit!”
On Father’s Day’s we thank our fathers. Without our earthly fathers, we would not have life. So many of our fathers provide for their families through the sweat of their brows. They make sacrifices so that their families may enjoy the good things of the world. Our earthly fathers teach us virtues like courage, fortitude, patience, patriotism, and self-sacrifice. So we thank our earthly fathers today both living and dead.
The Eucharist is also about thanksgiving. The very word Eucharist comes from the Greek New Testament ‘Eucharistia’ which means thanksgiving. Every time we gather for the Eucharist, we first and foremost give God thanksgiving for the gift of our salvation, for sending His Only Son to die for our sins. Without this sacrifice, there would be no hope of heaven.
And, the Eucharist is the great thanksgiving to the Father for all of his work. For everything He has accomplished in creation, redemption and sanctification, for everything accomplished by God now in the Church and in the world, for everything that God accomplishes in bringing the Kingdom to fulfilment. Thus the eucharist is the Church expressing her thankfulness for all God's blessings; she offers thanksgiving on behalf of the whole creation.
This is why a week without Eucharist, just doesn’t feel right. In the Eucharistic prayer the priest prays on behalf of the people and in the name of the Christ the Son: it is right and just, our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks, heavenly Father.
Failing to honor and thank God for the blessings we enjoy throughout the week is serious matter. So the entire Body of Christ, all of God’s people, need to gather for Eucharist every week, and failing in this obligation is a serious sin, which must be confessed if one wishes to receive Holy Communion in a state of grace.
On Father’s Day we also honor our fathers, and we are reminded of the fourth commandment to Honor our father and mother, always. The Catechism says that honor and respect flows from gratitude for our parents. So we recommit to obeying our Father’s in what they ask for the good of the family.
The Eucharist is about honoring the Father as well. For, obedient to His Father’s Will, Jesus poured Himself out for the salvation of the world, he instituted the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. We honor the Father, by uniting ourselves to Jesus in this celebration.
In Catholic Europe, Father’s Day has been celebrated on March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, patron of Fathers, since the Middle Ages. In the U.S. the third Sunday of June, is set aside for our Dads, only recently, coming as a sort of afterthought to complement Mother’s Day in May. Perhaps, this is a reflection of our sometimes-complex or strained relationships with our earthly fathers.
For some, Father’s Day evokes mixed feelings at best, hurt feelings at worst. Earthly Fatherhood is meant to be a reflection of the goodness and graciousness of the Heavenly Father. And yes, so many of our Father’s reflect God’s goodness. But sometimes, sadly, they don’t; or our expectations of them are unrealistic. Some father’s run away from their responsibilities, some father’s betray their children’s trust.
On Father’s Day we hope that some of the “Father-wounds” we carry around, can begin to heal.
And here is another important connection with the Eucharist. It is through the Eucharist, that the wounds of sin and division come to be healed. When we receive the Eucharist in a state of grace, there is healing of our spiritual wounds. Our relationship with the Father wounded by sin is healed, our relationship with our neighbor is healed.
Also the wounds that come from the wear and tear of life. Not to mention our own sin, but think of how many violent images, perverted images we see, stories of corruption of man’s inhumanity to man. The corruption of the world takes its toll. Our culture is like living in a poisoned underground mine filled with noxious fumes which obscures the true light of the sun. But in the Eucharist, the Father gives us a breath of fresh air, and glimpse of the light of the True Son, His Son, given for us all.
So, when we receive the Eucharist, our souls are oriented to the Father the source of all healing and life, our souls are oriented to the Son, who shows that the meaning of life is to do the will of the Father, and our souls are oriented to the Holy Spirit who restores the gifts from our Father which we lost through sin.
The Eucharist is the Father’s answer to the prayer His Son taught us: “Give us this day our Daily Bread”.
Where the world teaches self-reliance—to be independent of our fathers, Jesus teaches that our relationship with the heavenly Father must be different. Growing in holiness means become increasingly dependent on God and childlike, turning to God for our daily bread.
Sometimes we develop “trust-issues” with God, because our earthly trust has been betrayed or injured. Some people conclude that God doesn’t love them, or doesn’t exist, because they have been so betrayed. But Jesus teaches us to trust that the Heavenly Father does love us, he cares us about us, he wants what is best for us, and wants us to turn to Him, to learn to rely on him, to trust, to obey, and to surrender to His Holy Will.
At the Eucharist we become children again, children of the Father. We honor our Father by obeying his command to keep holy the Sabbath. We sing like children, praising our Father in joy. We come before the Father humbly, admitting our failures to be the people he made us to be. We come to thank Our Father for his manifold gifts. We come to the Father to learn how he thinks, to hear His words, to be instilled with his wisdom. And we come to the Eucharist as children to be fed by the Father.
As we come forward to receive the Eucharist today, may we do so thankfully, humbly, and open to the healing the Father wishes to effect in our lives and the gifts he wishes to bestow upon us from His bounty for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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