Perfect Communion

I was delighted this weekend to hear the Gospel that the Church gave us from Saint Luke. This text serves as the jumping point for Saint John Paul II in the second portion of his monumental “Theology of the Body.” This great work serves for us as a real anthropological study of the Christian reality: a look at what makes us who we are, from a Christian perspective.

The Synoptic Gospels all present to us the encounter between Jesus and the Sadducees regarding the woman married to the seven brothers, asking whose wife she would be at the resurrection. Jesus replies that in the resurrection we will neither marry nor be given in marriage but rather will be “like the angels.” (Matthew 22: 23-33, Mark 12:18-27, Luke 20: 27-40). John Paul calls this “becoming like the angels” an experience of “spiritualization.” This spiritualization however does not mean we will be disembodied, but rather that “in the resurrection, the body will return to perfect unity and harmony with the spirit” (TOB 67:1). In Eden this perfect unity was the reality that defined our human nature. The coming of sin changed that.

That’s what we mean when we talk about a “glorified body” in the new creation. Masculinity and femininity will take on new meaning, and none of this experience will be one of loss, but only gain, as we come into perfect communion with the Trinity. When the day of resurrection comes, God himself will give himself to humanity in a way that exceeds any sacrament or sign in this life, and which is so deeply personal that the only appropriate response will be our giving of ourselves the same way. In this achievement of total communion the ultimate purpose of the body is fully realized. God and man will enter into communion with one another, with man in his glorified body.

This should completely blow our minds.

Sometimes people tell me that they don’t know how to sit through an entire hour of Eucharistic Adoration without the assistance of prayer books and devotionals. Certainly such prayer is a good and holy thing, but imagine if when we sat with a friend for an hour we needed a script in order to talk to them? To grow deeper and deeper in intimate relationship with God, we have to at some point lay the books aside, and allow ourselves to be vulnerable before the one who loves us with an “unspeakable love” (as Saint Alphonsus would say).

What a perfect point to ponder.

What a perfect point to ponder particularly when so many are debating about the incident regarding Holy Communion and former Vice President Joe Biden.

God gives himself to us in the Eucharist in an incredible way, but that gift is but a taste of what is to come. In eternity we will be beyond sacraments, and the ultimate Eucharistic moment will be that glorified entry into perfect intimacy with him. In Eucharistic Adoration we enter into that palpable longing between us and the divine lover: a longing that is mutual. Remember his words from the cross? He thirsts. He thirsts for us. He thirsts for you.

He thirsts for that moment of his return, when Resurrection and Eucharist come together in a moment that redefines everything: that satisfies everything…that perfects everything.

We thirst for it too…it’s built into our very make up. The problem is we don’t often realize that it’s him we thirst!

Think of all the ways we try to satisfy that longing- the many ways we try to quench that thirst. We use all kinds of words to describe that very human experience that we all have each and every day: fulfillment, satisfaction, happiness, purpose…the list could go on and on. We try to meet that need in so many ways, but even the healthiest and most fulfilling of them is but a drop of what is to come.

What a perfect week to find some time to go to adoration…to sit in his presence…to long for him, and to experience his longing for us. What a perfect time to prayerfully consider the powerful truth that every time we receive the Eucharist, we experience in Sacrament that which we will experience fully…beyond sacrament…in the risen life that is to come.

If we are not in communion with him, in his Church, we are missing the central part of the Eucharistic experience.

He thirsts for us: and we thirst for him. What more reason do we need to go spend an hour with him?

**For more on Theology of the Body, and in particular the role of "the hermeneutic of gift", check out the essay about "Marian Pedagogy".