Become what you Receive - August 22

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 1, 2, 3; PM Psalm 4, 7; Job 4:1,5:1-11,17-21,26-27; Acts 9:19b-31; John 6:52-59

In a few weeks, I will once again make my way to Cambridge, Massachusetts to spend four days in retreat at the monastery run by the brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE).  These men have given their whole lives to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they make their grounds available throughout the year for people to come and worship with them in the ancient monastic traditions.  I am eager to sit in the holy quiet of the sacred space and pray for Saint Stephen’s and rest in God’s loving embrace.

I was there in 2019 for retreat and had planned a retreat in 2020 that was canceled due to the pandemic.  When I was visiting in 2019, I heard these words for the first time, “Behold what we are: May we become what we receive.” These words were the words of invitation to communion.  The priest offered, “Behold what we are” and the congregation responded, “May we become what receive.” 

What a beautiful image for the sacred meal of communion.  We reflect on our human nature and our capacity as humans and yet we pray to become the sacred gift that we so deeply desire and with the assumption that the meal actually transforms our very lives.  Today’s Gospel lesson from John is a dialogue of Jesus telling others that for those “who eat his flesh and drink his blood, abide in (him).”  It’s likely that this part of John is an early liturgical text of the Christians of the Johannine community, a reminder of how this sacred meal that we partake in, week in and week out has been around for nearly two millennia.    

Not only is the practice of communion ancient, but I find it deeply necessary.  When I need nourishment, I find it at the table.  When I need hope, I find it at the communion rail, people hungry for love, acceptance, grace, and justice, all coming forward and extending their hands and asking, even when they don’t even know it, to become what they receive. 

It’s why to renew my own soul, I’m not traveling to a beach or even a cold-water trout stream, but to an altar rail surrounded by men in cassocks who have committed their whole lives to living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We get the same opportunity each Sunday, and this week especially I pray that your walk forward on Sunday, that each of our extension of hands will not only help us to ‘behold what we are,’ but ‘become what we receive.’  I look forward to seeing you at the Altar rail on Sunday.  

John+

Questions for Self-Reflection:  How does the practice of communion shape your life?  Have you had transformative moments at the altar rail?

Daily Challenge:  Spend some time navigating the website of SSJE, specifically the monastic wisdom for everyday living.