Leap of Faith
Ordinary 20
August 16, 2015

Leap of Faith
by Tom Cox

It's a big ask alright- to hold our belief that "By the consecration the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about". (Catechism 1413)

Let's look at it another way. Think of your favourite sport, maybe one you think you are really good at. Suppose you spent years to perfect your skill at it and then you're there at the World Championships for that sport and you take Gold! You bring the medal home, all your friends and relations want to see it, so you have a busy few months ahead. But a day comes when you come back to your car to find that it's been broken into, window smashed - no medal.

So you think to yourself after a while and no medal returns "It's not really important. I know I won it fairly. Everyone else knows that too. They saw it on the television. The records are there. The medal looked good, but it's just a symbol, a representation of what I've done. So maybe someone will sell it as scrap – so what? We all know the facts."

Somehow, I don't think that's the way most people would react.The medal is not just a symbolic representation of the facts. That medal embodies all your efforts for years, all the time and resources and support of so many people. Your mind may intellectualise it, but you know that that medal embodies something beyond just a list of facts.

Remember how the medal embodies so much for you. Now: think of the Communion, the Bread of Life, that we share here today.Think of the words you've heard in these readings. Think of Jesus, and all he embodies, all he did, all he means to so many, his very life.

If a medal can embody so much, what does the Bread of Life embody for you today? Can you hold on to that as you come for Communion? Not just coming forward for an insignificant looking white object, but all the words, all the works, all the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

(Comments to Tom at tomascox@eircom.net )