CONFERRAL OF ACOLYTE PADRAIG KELLY
St Clare’s Church, Manorhamilton
10 June 2017
The ministry of acolyte that Padraig will receive shortly is the final stage on the journey to the order of Deacon. As the readings of our Mass today suggest, it is concerned very much with the ministry of the Eucharist. As an acolyte Padraig will be a special minister of the Eucharist, distributing Communion at Mass and bringing Communion to the sick. Of course, lay people are already doing that in the Church nowadays. That does not take anything away from the importance of the ministry entrusted to Padraig today. Rather, it emphasises the dignity and importance of the role played by the extraordinary ministers of the sacrament.
The short exhortation to the candidate that follows this homily summarises the task Padraig is about to undertake. I want to reflect one of the points that it highlights in relation to the place of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.
The exhortation tells us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church’s life. That is a quotation from the Second Vatican Council. In every Mass we repeat the words Jesus said at the Last Supper: Take this and eat of it, this is my body which is given for you; take this and drink of it, this is the cup of my blood, poured out for you … Do this in memory of me.
What this is telling us is that when Christ gave us the Eucharist he gave us himself. He gave his life for us and gave us a share in his life. He continues to give us himself in the Mass. He nourishes his life within us by his word and by his body and blood. The Eucharist is the source of the Christ life in us. Jesus said: “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you…Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, lives in me and I live in him.” The Eucharist is our Christian life blood. We cannot thrive as Christians without it. We go to Mass on Sunday and Holy Days, not just to obey a law of the Church, but to receive the regular transfusions of Christ’s life and grace that we so badly need to help us live our lives in imitation of his love, care, compassion and forgiveness.
The Eucharist is not only the source of the Church’s life. It is also the summit of its life. It is not only the origin of the Church’s life, but also its goal and destination. The ultimate goal is beyond this life. It’s a goal of unity, bringing us all together in one body under Christ as head. This is God’s grand plan as outlined in St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “that God would bring everything together under Christ as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.” That is heaven. The Eucharist is the means for achieving this unity and this goal for all of us. We call it Communion – literally union together – because it brings about Communion. It begins right here as we take part in the Mass, but will only be completed in eternity.
So, the goal of the Eucharist is not simply to nourish Christ’s life in us as individuals but to unite us, to bring us together as one body. By eating the body of Christ, we become the Body of Christ. The first reading reminded us:
The blessing cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ. The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.
As Christians we are the body of Christ. The exhortation will remind you, Padraig, that, “In performing your ministry [you should] bear in mind that, as you share the one bread with your brothers and sisters, so you form one body with them”. It asks you to show a sincere love for Christ’s Body, God’s holy people, and especially for the weak and the sick. I know that you have been doing that very generously for decades both in your professional life and in your voluntary work in the parish and community here and in the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. I have every confidence you will continue to do it in the future as an Acolyte and, please God, very soon as a deacon of the diocese of Kilmore.
