EUCHARIST AND SUFFERING

It is said that that there is no growth without pain. In that case, we all must be growing like weeds during Coronatide. Of course, sometimes, pain is just pain, and suffering can’t always be cured, rather merely endured. However, we also know that in our suffering, that we are joined in it by Jesus Christ, whose own suffering and death on the cross was necessary. For without His actions, there would be no Resurrection and we could not be partakers of what He gave… His Body and Blood.

The Eucharist is the means by which He sustains us, strengthens us, and turns a bunch of “I’s” into a “We”. In a sense, the Eucharist is Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, and we are grafted into His life, and into one another’s through the bread and wine.

That is why it is also fitting to refer to the Eucharistic Celebration as Holy Communion. We are set apart, made Holy, from not only the fallenness of the world but from our own fallen nature. We are made Holy by the source of Holiness, and communing, in every sense of the word, with Him, and with each other. 

But as beautiful and powerful as the Eucharist is, as much as we joyfully celebrate and participate in it, our current Pandemic allows us to bear in mind the suffering that necessitated it.

Throughout these past months, Clergy, Lay Workers, and Volunteers have worked and suffered as they sought to ensure that the Eucharist could be celebrated and received. The situation changed, adaptations made, and much suffering has been endured, but at the heart of all of it has been the Eucharist.

So too, has suffering played its part in those who cannot receive the Eucharist at this time. Denied the Eucharist due to the need to keep loved ones safe, one’s own health, or concern for the Community have all been a source of suffering and sacrifice. Although these times have brought many fears, both legitimate and unfounded—fears for our health and those we love, fears for our country, fears that we share and those that place us in opposition—what unites them all is suffering.

We cannot ‘return to normal’ without recognizing not only the suffering others have endured but also that suffering each of us has experienced in this time. And while suffering can be endured and alleviated, only in Christ can suffering be transformed. And while an important means towards that transformation exists in the Eucharist, that means is unavailable to many in this time. Yet we know from experience that even that means often seems to fail in many a partaker. But the same thing that facilitates the transformative ability of the partaker of the Eucharist is always available to all of us who suffer, even now; Prayer.

We should realize the power of prayer to transform our suffering in that pernicious pull to fall away from our prayer in times such as these. Sure, we can muster up the occasional prayer to God to end the suffering, but it becomes much harder to pray consistently through the midst of suffering that must merely be endured. 

In the end, our current crisis makes growth inevitable. Our choice is whether we grow closer to God, or more distant. Normalcy is no longer an option and complacency has been revealed to be an excuse to tread water. If we want to grow closer in our relationship with Him, then we must seek Him where He is: in the Eucharist if we are able, but just as importantly in prayer, as well as in those in whom He resides, our fellow Christians.