The Cross-roads of History when sacraments and magic meet!

Our lives often bring us to cross roads where we have to take stock and ask: ‘How did I get here?’ Within this question lie three other questions: where have I been? Where am I now? and where am I to go next? In the words of the Lord to Jeremiah:

“Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the good way?                                                                    Take it and you will find rest for yourselves.”

At such a cross-roads there is the temptation to look for a don’t step on the cracks method rather than a providential discernment of the times.  So it is that we find the two disciples who had taken the road to Emmaus but internally they were at a crossroads. They clearly had a double mind about events that had happended in Jerusalem. When Jesus met them at the cross roads of their lives he freed them from this bifurcation of confusion. As St Luke relates:

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

They were conversing and debating what had occurred in Jerusalem when Jesus came up and asked them: “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They were down cast and Cleopas, whose other name was Alphaeus, and despite being an uncle of Jesus, he did not recognise him and so said to him in reply: “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”

Jesus then coaxes them by asking “what sort of things?” To which they replied by relating to him what had happened to Jesus and how their hopes were shattered by his rejection and crucifixion. But certain women had reported that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb and that angels had also appeared to tell them that he had risen. All this had really mystified both disciples. Jesus then rebukes them for their slowness in understanding the prophets. He then leads them through the scriptures to show them how and why the Messiah was to be rejected and sacrificed so as to fulfil the prophets and the scriptures. But it was only at the breaking of bread that they recognised who had been talking to them, yet before this their hearts had burned within them whilst he was opening the meaning of the Scriptures to them.

Here we have what can only be described as the Liturgy of the Word  and the Liturgy of the Eucharist which will form the basic structure not only of the Mass but also how future disciples of Jesus would be formed. It makes clear that before the 2 disciples recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread they must read and interpret the scriptures in the light of Christ. Only when their hearts burned within them would they be able to recognise the presence of Jesus in the breaking of bread! So too, before we can recognise Christ in the Eucharist we must first not just listen but hear and understand the true meaning of the Scriptures. For ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ!

In the first three centuries of the Church, the Liturgy of the Word was also called the Mass of Catechumens. Catechumen means he who hears. The Catechumens were those who were preparing for baptism and so having been purified and exorcised they could then hear the word of God with the whole Church. But when the Liturgy of the Word was finished the Catechumens had to leave the Church before the mystery of mysteries was celebrated, namely, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. You see only those who were fully initiated into the Church through the sacraments of initiation could stay to celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist. All others who were not baptised including the Catechumens had to leave before the Eucharist was celebrated, for the Eucharist was too holy a mystery for the eyes of a pagan or the unbaptised to look upon! Hence, the other term we have for the Eucharist, namely, Holy Communion. Only those in full communion with Christ and the Church of the Apostles could contemplate and receive the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

What can we learn from this initiation into the Mystery of Christ that we see played out in our Gospel today?

Well, the Mass of the Catechumens was part of an ancient rite of the Church which is called today the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults – RCIA for short. RCIA existed in pre-Constantine days when the Church was persecuted and when they would come together for the Word and for the Breaking of Bread they had to secretly gather in catacombs and in their homes.  When The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults was restored in 1972, the Holy Spirit was getting the Church ready for the times in which we now live. The Holy Spirit helps Christians to remember the history of Salvation and the gifts we have received from God in and through Sacred Scripture. 

Thus, the RCIA addresses the fact that today so many are sacramentalised without being catechised or even evangelised!  Indeed, the RCIA is now the means and the basis for a new Evangelisation of Old World represented by Europe which has fallen into an unspiritual and unholy practice of receiving the sacraments without Faith and without understanding the Story of Salvation revealed in Sacred Scripture! In other words, the Rites of the Sacraments are disconnected from a discipleship that follows Our Lord personally and communally and instead they are turned into rites of magic that can be given to or taken by anyone without conversion or repentance!

In calling for the restoration of the RCIA Vatican II was calling parishes to become Eucharistic Communities and so thereby to become fit for Mission. RCIA would become the basis for formation, both in the Faith and for each and every Sacrament. Simply put, RCIA is the way we make disciples of all nations. This means that the study of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Doctrine and the preparation for the Sacraments must be situated within a living community who possess a living Sacred Tradition that accepts Our Lord Jesus as the Master of the Way, the Truth and the Life.  The days when people could come to take the sacraments be it Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion or Marriage without being a disciple, without living in Eucharistic fellowship and without a sense of mission, are now firmly over!

For we live in a country that has forsaken its Christian heritage and where many have chosen a secular life style that lives out a practical atheism defined by the motto ‘live for today, for tomorrow we die!’ Sacraments are not to be treated as rites of magic which do not require a moral change of life of the recipents, but rather Sacraments are to be given to those who seek to be disciples of Our Lord. They are not to be given to those who refuse discipleship and who choose, rather, to be conformed to the unholy spirit of this World and the unholy fashions of that zeitgeist!