Sunday Intercessions ~ The Feast of Christ the King

It is the Feast of Christ the King./ We thank God for the liturgical Year of Grace that is ending/ and pray that we would live fruitful lives of faith,/ hope and charity./ We pray to the Lord.

This feast originates from a time when the world was again preparing for war./ We pray for a world converted to the mind of the just and peaceful Jesus./ We pray to the Lord.

Jesus our King asks us to feed the hungry,/ give drink to the thirsty,/ clothe the naked,/ shelter the homeless,/ visit the sick and imprisoned./ We ask for the insight and will to follow his mandate well./ We pray to the Lord.

Jesus tells his disciples to own nothing,/ yet once again we begin the holiday shopping season,/ which promises meaning and happiness in owning things./ We pray for hearts that are inwardly free for the pursuit of spiritual and deeply human concerns./ We pray to the Lord.

Jesus our King wears a thorn-crown./ We pray for those who suffer human indignities,/ torture,/ enslavement,/ false imprisonment,/ false execution./ We pray to the Lord.

Advent begins next week./ We pray to delay feasting and celebrating without first entering into our own personal Advent-tension of light and dark./ We pray for those who will approach Christmas through the doors of repentance and reconciliation./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray that the sick would know the gentle love and consolation of Jesus,/ our crucified and risen King./ We pray too for those who have died this past year and for those who mourn them./ We pray to the Lord.

"How I wish it were kindled..."

THIS IS THE SWEET RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CEMETERY-CHAPEL of Sainte Genevieve-des-Bois outside Paris. Like all Russian churches, large or small, it has at least one onion shaped dome called a cupola. Some cupolas are golden, others blue or blue with stars or are formed of wooden shingles, laid out like fish scales and which turn silvery over time. The cupola likely is a descendant of the domes of ancient Byzantium, perfected to shed the snow of Russia's winter.

But there is more, because the cupola is a stylized flame symbolizing the Church - the disciples of Jesus down through the millennia, on fire for Christ. Here's the little verse from Saint Luke's Gospel (12:49) And Jesus said, "I have come to bring fire down to the earth, and how I wish it were kindled already!" 

So what's the fire? It isn't the hell-fire some Christians love to wield. But what about this, "Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love."  The fire of loving-kindness, comfort giving  and mercy. 

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, "Abba, as far as I can, I say my little office I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?" Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, "If you will, you can become all flame." (From The Sayings of the Desert Fathers)

And there is the fire of compassion. Albert Schweitzer said: "Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man himself will not find peace." This means the animals and plants too - and the water and the soil, which are alive. Doesn't this echo the words of Jesus at the end of Saint Mark's Gospel: "Go out to all the world and proclaim the good news to every creature." 

"O Son of God, bring me into communion..."

IN THE OLD ROMAN MISSAL there was a very beautiful Mass prayer the priest prayed privately before receiving Holy Communion. In the revised Missal following the Second Vatican Council that prayer was divided into two - the priest praying one or the other.

In the Eastern Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom there is also a prayer for the priest preparing to receive the Eucharist. It is easily learned by heart and suitable for reciting, even several times, as one approaches the Sacrament at Mass:

O Son of God
bring me into communion this day
with your Mystical Supper.
I will not tell your enemies the secret,
nor will I  kiss you with Judas' kiss,
but like the good thief I cry:
Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.

"bring me into communion this day with your Mystical Supper." Again, and we really must get this sense, mystery doesn't mean a puzzle we have to wrack our brains to solve. Mystery isn't that the clues are so far away from me that I can't comprehend or solve the riddle. But mystery means that God is so close to us - as with a printed text right up against our eyes - we can miss it utterly. This is Bethlehem. This is Calvary. This is the Eucharist.

Your Mystical Supper. Jesus is often in attendance at dinners and suppers. He reveals himself most intimately at the last meal before his dying and again on Easter night to the apostle-travelers. While Americans have lost the sacred sense of meal, for the Middle Easterner, few things are as intimate as eating a meal together. And it's within a meal that Jesus draws most closely to us, in the wonder of his love. 

How the Lord of Creation is present totally in the little bit of bread and wine is  incomprehensible, as is the enormity of his love for all the people of our wounded world. I say incomprehensible because we're so inclined to parcel out love, like little bits of string or crumbs, or make people jump through hoops for the inclusion or the mercy. It simply isn't that way with Jesus, and there are Christians who will bristle at the thought.

Vatopedi Monastery ~ Mystical Supper

I will not tell your enemies the secret. The image below was painted by Duccio Buoninsegna, depicting the betrayal of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There's a large crowd of people with Judas - torch-bearing temple guards and leaders. Obviously, Judas has told the secret of where to find Jesus so to arrest him. I will not tell your enemies the secret then is a poetic way of telling Jesus before Holy Communion: Count me among your loyal friends, one who will never betray you.

Nor kiss you with Judas' kiss. Judas has taken the gesture of respectful love for one's teacher and twisted it up so that Jesus could be identified in the dark garden. Talk about a betrayal. I want nothing to do with that. Perhaps we've heard about the airline stewardess in Europe who was terminated for refusing to remove the simple cross she was wearing around her neck.

I remember when I was a young boy that three Christian men from neighboring houses came to see my father about helping to buy a house on the street  they had heard was going to be sold to an African-American family. I stood next to my father and heard him refuse.

Finally there is that last bit of the prayer which recalls a final dialogue Jesus had while suffering his crucifixion. But like the good thief. Usually he (the Good Thief) is named Dismas. The other thief is named Gesmas who scoffs at Jesus and taunts him. 

Dismas offers a corrective: We deserve it after-all, but Jesus has done nothing wrong. And then Dismas proclaims that Jesus is a king - Remember me in your kingdom, or Remember me when you come into your reign. He seems to know that Jesus isn't an earthly king, but he still wants to be counted as one who lives under Jesus' rule. 

And the words Remember me, - how beautiful is that, born of a desire to share the intimacy of friendship with Jesus - to be the recipient of his promises. We can wonder how Dismas knew about Jesus and the good things he offers. And don't we all want to be remembered? Maybe that's why we put up headstones in cemeteries. But Dismas wants better than a headstone - he wants Jesus! And Jesus doesn't disappoint. "Today, you will be with me in paradise" Jesus taking care of others even though he is at the end of his own life and suffering greatly.

Holy Communion gives me an experience of Jesus' remembering. In the Eastern Liturgy the point of Jesus' remembering me personally is made even more explicit as the name of the communicant is announced as he/she comes forward to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.

A lot of people are distracted on the Communion line at Mass: little waves to people, managing children, who's here/who's not. The parish expectation might be that we be singing, which is often not very successful. This prayer might help us to focus. Or even in the moments when there is some relative quiet - when the priest and those in the sanctuary are receiving Communion, instead of watching all of that choreography up front, we might pray this prayer in quietness and joy.