As we move from Halloween to Thanksgiving and on into Advent, a progression I am eagerly awaiting that I might see the mysteries of the seasons through the new set of glasses that have been shared with me, we begin to use words that are peculiar to this time of the year. Cornucopia is one of the words and it is word I would use to describe today’s readings. There is so much nourishment to absorb and share that it is hard to focus on just one thought or two. I have spent time contemplating this passage from St. Ambrose:
The law of our fallen nature is at war with the law of our reason and subjects the law of reason to the law of error. What is the remedy?
It is counterintuitive to think the solution to death is to die to ourselves and to live in Christ. The fact that we are sinners drives us to doubt the gift of the resurrection. Our insecurities whisper in our ears that we should abhor death. Reason tells us that death is the end and there is nothing we can see that will prove to the unfaithful that life exists beyond death. When we listen to reason, we risk true death because reason would lead us away from the path to our personal salvation. The remedy? We did not need to read into the next paragraph of the passage to find the answer to that question, the answer is written in our hearts and souls. The remedy is the Grace of Christ who, beyond our ability to reason, gave himself up to death to save us from true death.
This is, of course, All Soul’s Day and since early this morning I have been able to almost physically feel the power of the prayers offered up by the church all over the world for souls of those who have passed before us. It is as if we are all speaking with one voice. The message of Paul is that without the resurrection we would have nothing. All those who have died would truly be dead. We know this is not true. We believe it absolutely.
From the second reading taken from the first letter to the Corinthians:
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too.
Many years ago, when I was struggling to make sense of the struggle to live as a Christian in a world where moral values were being painted with the whitewash of secular humanism, I elected to enter a Methodist Seminary. What happened toward the end of my first year was that a New Testament professor stood before the class and warned us that once we were out in our summer assignments we needed to consider that many people in the congregation still believed in the antiquated notion of a physical resurrection of Christ and that we need to be careful in how approached the subject. I was instantly horrified because I knew without a doubt he was not speaking in jest or in a manner some teachers use to provoke us to think. He was, in fact, and ordained minister of the church as well as having several degrees in history and theology and he truly believed the resurrection was a metaphor. It was at that moment that I realized I was no longer a Methodist and could never be a Methodist. A few weeks later I left the seminary and rejoined Catholic Church as fast I could.
It is not my intent to defend the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ. Scholars and theologians with training and experience with far more eloquence than me have defended the faith countless times over the past two thousand years. Instead I wish to state that in almost one instant I came to realize that if I believed in the physical death and resurrection, examination of that truth would lead to more truths. If Christ truly died and truly rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, than the body and blood of Christ was present in the Eucharist. If Christ is truly present in the Eucharist than when eat His body and drink his blood, he becomes truly present in us. He becomes truly present in me and my soul; all of our souls are nourished as we journey toward our final rest in Him.
Cornucopia – the horn of plenty- is a symbol of abundant food. There is an older meaning. Cornucopia refers to food of worship and holiness. This means we can use the word to refer to not only the bounty of the Thanksgiving feast but also to the bounty of Holy Communion. The Eucharist is the ultimate example of cornucopia.
Jesus said, “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy …” Luke 15:4-5