The Eucharist in Genesis' Story of the Fall

Tonight at Mass something caught my ear.  I am sure that I have heard the words before; but their significance had not registered. It was the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer (Preface of Sundays in Ordinary Time III):

"For we know it belongs to your boundless glory,

that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity

and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself,

that the cause of our downfall

might become the means of our salvation,

through Christ our Lord."

Now, I am constantly amazed at the interrelation of the Old Testament and the New, the way that God inspired writers living hundreds, sometimes a thousand, years before Jesus' birth in their recording of history and use of imagery.  Take the first chapters of Genesis for instance:  It relates the Creation and Fall of humanity in language accessible to anyone - real historical events recorded in imagery that even a child can enter into.  But look at how the imagery employed by the author lines up with events in Jesus' life.  (This is what is called a typological reading of Scripture):

Type	Antitype
Garden of Eden	Garden of Gethsemane / Garden Tomb
Adam & Eve chose own will	Christ prayed, “Father, Thy will be done”
Tree of Life Tree of Knowledge	Tree of the Cross
Adam put into a deep sleep, and Eve built up from rib taken from Adam’s side	Christ in the sleep of death, as water (Baptism) and blood (Eucharist) flow from His pierced side, giving birth to the Church

But look back at today's preface to the Eucharistic Prayer - look at what I had missed all these years!

Spiritual and physical death because they ate the forbidden fruit.

Spiritual and (ultimately) physical life because we eat the Body and drink the Blood of Jesus (Jn 6:53-58)

Mind blown.  The Father's means for continually filling us with His Son's divine and human life explains why the author of Genesis was inspired to use the image of eating a forbidden food in the story of the Fall!

Fresh Insights Into the Heart of Mary - Gary Zimak's "Listen to Your Blessed Mother"

Gary Zimak is one of those rare people who can share profoundly deep insights, but in the language of the break room; and that's exactly what we need in these days of the New Evangelization!  I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of his latest book, Listen to Your Blessed Mother: Mary's Words in Scripture; and Gary has crafted another winner. 

In it, he gives us a program of Christian life, drawn wholly from the words of Mary.  "What?  She only spoke like four times in the Bible!"  I know, but as Gary shows, it is the depth of Mary's recorded words, and the actions that accompanied them, that fully encapsulate the life of the believer.  Throughout the book he moves flawlessly back and forth from reflection to real-life application.

What I love most about this book is how tenaciously Gary digs into Mary's words - we're talking five chapters on the Magnificat alone!  Could you do that?  I couldn't.  That's what makes this book fantastic though: he did the work, and we reap the benefits - the Communion of Saints in action. What else can you expect to find?  Three chapters covering the Annunciation, two for the Finding in the Temple, two on the Marriage at Cana, and five drawing lessons from Mary's other (silent) appearances in the gospels and Acts. This book has me excited - I want to do a couple of posts this week sparked by Gary's insights.

The book will be released on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption; but I was shocked to see Amazon offering 25% off on pre-orders ($9.74 instead of $12.99).  I don't know how long they plan to do that; but it's a steal.  Hope you can take advantage of it.

 

EVERY Christian Believes in Purgatory

Mother Miriam reminded me of this truth. Every Christian, at least implicitly, believes in purgatory. And I would wager that if more people understood what the Catholic Church  means when it speaks of purgatory, they would find themselves compelled to also acknowledge its existence.

Too many people speak of purgatory as a "place," as they do heaven and hell.  Here is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it:

All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned ... The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire (1 Cor.3:15, 1 Peter 1:7) ...

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin" (2 Maccabees 12:46). From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God ... (CCC 1030-32)

Purgatory is a process, a process of cleansing.  I go into this in more depth in The God Who is Love, but let me give a few points:
 

Jesus taught, “from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man” (Mk.7:21-23).  Now hopefully we Christians are not committing murder but the unkind thoughts or harsh judgments we harbor toward others (the roots of murder) may still be very much with us. These are not acts so great as to completely severe our union with Christ, but they do inhibit the flow of His life within us. When we shed our bodies at death do the impurities, the imperfections in our capacity to love, just disappear? If they are in the heart, and we take that with us, then no. 

Every Christian I know believes that we will be "perfect" in heaven.  No more sinful actions and no more sinful movements of the heart.  And we're right to believe so, Scripture teaches that “nothing unclean shall enter” the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev.21:27).  So if the vast majority of us have imperfect hearts/souls at the moment of death, and yet we will be perfect when fully united to God in heaven, a cleansing must take place!  It's implicit in the understanding of all Christians; the Catholic Church is simply drawing our attention to it.  

There's a lot more to be said.  If you're curious you might want to check out Chapter 6 of The God Who is Love, "Confession and the Ongoing Nature of Salvation."  Let me give the final word in this post to my Anglican brother, C.S. Lewis:

Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break [our] heart if God said to us, “It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy”? Should we not reply, “With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.” “It may hurt, you know” - “Even so, sir.”[1]

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[1] Lewis, C.S. The Joyful Christian (New York: McMillan Publishing Company, 1984), p.222.