The Eucharist for many Christians is participating in the suffering and death of Christ as well as the resurrection. They cannot be separated. Christ was fully human; his heart filled with compassion for all and drinks with us the seeming bottomless chalice ever empty and ever filled. The chalice we drink is what Christ also drank; it is also what is offered in the Eucharist. God becoming food for his creatures, bread his body, wine is blood……so no matter how lonely one is, or filled with pain, or filled with remorse over a life of failure, Christ is there loving his fallen creatures that have yet to reach the state of perfect human hood. A state where we can love and suffer without fear and not need anger and contempt to protect us from the deep suffering and wounds of others. A friend of mine gave a talk and he said that in the Body of Christ there is only one wound and we all partake of it . . . . his name was Tom S. That was said almost 40 years ago yet I have never forgotten it.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
