Transcript
The Eucharist is... Life-giving. An invitation. Encouraging. Transformative. Wonderful. The Eucharist is the answer.
If someone knew the best way to do something that was important to you, wouldn't you want to learn everything you could from that person? Most reasonable and rational people would say yes. So what would you say if I told you at this time when the divorce rate amongst Catholics in the United States, around 50%, there was a city on this planet with no divorce? Not less, not half, not very few, none. You would think everyone would want to know their secret. Soroki Briag is the city with no divorce. Located in Bosnia Herzegovina, there are 30,000 inhabitants and not a single recorded case of divorce in living memory. For centuries, these people were persecuted for their Catholic faith. They suffered the invasions of the Muslim Turks, they suffered Nazi occupation and genocide, and more recently, they have suffered at the hands of communist atheists. Famine, war, cultural strife, and unending political upheavals stain almost every page of their history books. They have suffered. And through that suffering, they have learned an epic lesson. Sacrifice and salvation are inseparably connected. What does all this have to do with marriage and divorce? Out of these intense and prolonged experiences of suffering, they developed a unique wedding ritual. On the day of the wedding, the bride and groom bring a crucifix to the church. The priest blesses it and tells the couple, "You have found your cross, and it is a cross to be loved, to be carried across not to be thrown away, but to be cherished."
When it comes time for the exchange of vows, the bride places her right hand on the crucifix, and the groom places his hand over hers. The priest wraps the stall around their hands and around the cross. After saying their vows, the bride and groom do not kiss one another, they both kiss Jesus on the cross. Only then do they kiss each other. When the ceremony is over, the now married couple brings the crucifix to their home and displays it prominently. From that day on, they bring their hopes, dreams, struggles, worries, gratitude, and sorrows and lay them at the foot of the cross. When they have children, they present their children to Jesus on the cross. It becomes the centerpiece of their spiritual life as a couple and as a family. Every night before going to bed, the children kissed Jesus goodnight, just as their parents kissed him on the day they united their souls as one in marriage. Love and sacrifice are inseparable. Suffering and salvation are inseparable. In a fallen world, broken by selfishness and bent out of shape by pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, sloth, and gluttony, love requires sacrifice. In relationships among fallen people constantly tempted to selfishness and pride, love and sacrifice go hand in hand. Married couples need to know this better than most, but every truly loving relationship in our lives is stitched together in an endless stream of sacrifices. The moment you stop sacrificing for the other person in a relationship is the moment that relationship begins to die.
When Jesus gave up his life on the cross to save us, it was the ultimate act of love. This alone teaches us something about love at the foundational level. The ultimate act of love was an act of total sacrifice. He held nothing back. We live in a time when there is very rarely alignment between what a person says and what a person does. But Jesus' life was in complete conformity with his teachings. There was a total alignment between who he was, what he taught, and how he chose to live his life. This is what he said, "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." And this is what he did. This is what he did. They took Jesus and led him away and carrying his own cross went out to a place called Golgotha, where they crucified him. What he said and what he did were perfectly integrated. This is what it means to live with integrity, to align what we do and what we say and what we believe. Every Mass is an opportunity to learn from Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. The cross is Jesus' ultimate teaching. It is the ultimate masterclass. The wisdom we can glean from Jesus' crucifixion has broad applications to every aspect of our lives. But what is clear is that the people of Siroki Brijeg have adopted the crucifixion as a masterclass on marriage. When we receive the Eucharist, which is born from the masterclass of the cross, we are given the grace, courage, wisdom, and fortitude to offer up our own sufferings for those we love and all in need.
There is no path to happiness in this life unless you can make sense of suffering. And Christianity is the only religion or philosophy that understands the transformative value of suffering. While the whole world is doing everything it can to avoid and drown out their pain and suffering, we are reminded each Sunday at Mass that our pain and suffering have tremendous value when united to the pain and suffering of Jesus on the cross. Separated from Jesus, our pain and suffering become meaningless. And that is why life is so depressing for so many in a world that has rejected God and the idea that suffering has value. Sacrificial love brings meaning to our lives in a culture of meaninglessness. It binds us together in a world intent on tearing everyone apart. It provides healing in a culture overwhelmed with wounds. Choose a relationship in your life that is struggling and pour into it the unmitigated love of daily sacrifice. Every Sunday at Mass, we see before us the secret to lasting relationships represented on the altar. There is a direct connection between the most momentous event in human history and your marriage, your friendships, and every meaningful relationship in your life. That connection is loving sacrifice. Jesus modeled self-sacrifice so that we could learn from Him. The Mass models that self-sacrifice for us to continue to learn from and to provide an opportunity to go deeper into the counterintuitive genius of God's ways. We have turned away from referring to our Eucharistic gathering as the sacrifice of the mass. In favor of calling it the celebration of the mass. Words matter. They direct our thoughts and our thoughts direct our actions. The mass is both a sacrifice and a celebration. But when we forget that it is only because of the sacrifice that we have something to celebrate, we raise up generations of people who crave celebration and are ill-prepared to face the inevitable sacrifices of life.
There is no love without sacrifice. Inject sacrifice into any relationship where love has evaporated and allow the fruits of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross to breathe new life into that relationship. For so long we've all been looking for answers to so many problems, to so many questions, to so many challenges. Maybe sacrifice is the answer we have been looking for but have refused to adopt. Trust, surrender, believe, receive. Love and sacrifice are inseparable, suffering and salvation are inseparable. Make a small sacrifice today. Become a member of the International Society of the Eucharist, we'll send you a free copy of 33 Days Eucharistic Glory. A copy of the children's version, a copy of the limited-edition journal, which includes an amazing Holy Week Retreat. Click the button below and join now. Have a great day, and remember, be bold, be Catholic. We are people of the Eucharist.
Yes, I believe that you are truly present.
In the most holy sacrament.
Of the Eucharist.
Every day.
I long for more review.
I love you above all things.
And I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot receive you
Sacramentally
At this moment
I invite you to come and dwell in my heart.
May the Spiritual Communion
Increase my desire for the Eucharist.
You are the healer of my soul.
Take the blindness from my eyes.
The deafness from my ears.
The darkness from my mind.
And the hardness from my heart.
Fill me with the grace, wisdom, and courage to do your will.
And all things.
My Lord and my God.
Draw me close to you.
Nearer than ever before.
Amen.
Consecrate America.
To the Eucharist.
Bye bye.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Yeah! Come on.
Have a great day!
Hey, Isabelle. One simple way to be mindful of God's presence in the world is to know where the nearest tabernacle is. So, while we've got a couple of minutes, I thought we might work on your geography a little.
Sounds good, Dad. You're always coming up with something.
What about if I was at latitude 38.86 and longitude of -99.15? Where would the nearest tabernacle be?
Save the day, Liz.
Victoria, Kansas.