Holy Father’s Monthly Intentions
theophilus October 6th, 2009
It is a tradition for the Pope to express his Monthly Intentions for the Church. There is a General Intention and a Missionary Intention. If you pray a Morning Offering when you wake up, you probably offer your day in part for the special intentions of the Holy Father this month.
October’s General Intention is – that Sundays may be lived as the day on which Christians gather to celebrate the Risen Lord in the table of the Eucharist.
I was thinking about this intention on the way to Mass this Sunday. We pass a Protestant church on the way to St. Max. This Sunday, I started to think aloud and said rather poignantly while pointing to the full parking lot – “hey guys, the real thing is down the street . . . come on and join us.”
My wife then looked at me with bewilderment, hushed me, and then rebuked me by reminding me that my little girl’s best friend attends that church and I shouldn’t be saying such things. But then she got to the crux of the matter and said “what, do you think they’re going to go to hell because they’re not Catholic?”
“Whoa there honey – I said no such thing.”
I happen to believe that our salvation does not depend upon us being Catholic. God is going to extend his mercy to us through his Son to more than those who have accepted his call to join in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.
But, it is only in that one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church that we can receive Him, come into communion with Him, experience the Real Presence of Him. Even the good, holy Christians that attend the Church we passed last Sunday would agree that they do not acknowledge the Real Presence. It’s only Catholics that accept that Christ, through the Holy Eucharist, is truly present with us and invites us to be one with him, to be one with each other through Him.
And that is what I do not get about those of the Protestant Christian faiths. Why deny yourself this divine gift? Why reject Christ himself? There is a strength, a saving grace, a spiritual high that I get with communion. Christ gives us the gift of Him through Holy Communion; and we either accept it as part of our birthright and who we are, or we reject it.
In the Anima Christi, we extol the virtues of receiving communion -
- Soul of Christ, sanctify me
- Body of Christ, save me
- Blood of Christ, inebriate me
- Water from the side of Christ, wash me
- Passion of Christ, strengthen me
- O good Jesus, hear me
- Within Thy wounds hide me
- Separated from Thee let me never be
- From the malicious enemy defend me
- In the hour of my death call me
- And bid me come unto Thee
- That I may praise Thee with Thy saints
- and with Thy angels
- Forever and ever
- Amen
Sanctification, salvation, inebriation, cleansing, strengthening, listening, protection, union, defending – all from the Real Presence, all from Holy Communion.
There is a prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas that goes something like -
“O Sacred Banquet, where the body of Christ is received, the memory of his passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us.”
Again, why deny yourself this gift, dining at this sacred banquet.
Yet, other Christian faiths deny themselves this grace. And I guess that is what the Holy Father is pointing out with his general intention this month.
That Sundays may be lived as the day on which Christians gather to celebrate the Risen Lord in the table of the Eucharist.
Let us pray for our fellow Christians this month. We shouldn’t jump to “what, do you think they’re going to go to hell because they’re not Catholic?” Instead, we should be grateful that they share our belief in the Risen Lord, while also praying that they may gather with us at the table of the Eucharist to truly celebrate Christ our Lord.
And we can pray that our fellow Catholics embrace this special grace that is there for the taking if only they will accept it.
- Church , Eucharist , Jesus , Pope
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