The Goodness of Fellowship

 

Blessed by Association

Saint Matthew 18:20

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I (Jesus) in the midst of them.

Baptized Christians are continually formed by the Sacred Liturgy into the Body of Christ. In Ordinariate communities, that formation finds substantial expression in the hospitality extended to friend and stranger in the fellowship that follows Divine Worship (Mass). We lovingly speak of that fellowship as the "Eighth Sacrament", intending no diminishment of nor prejudice toward the Seven Sacraments that the Church teaches and celebrates. We merely acknowledge what the Church teaches. The Eucharist informs our habits of mind and body. With the grace of God, we dispose ourselves to the Eucharistic Lord who configures our hearts and actions to Himself, so that we may participate in the redemptive action of Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls. The dismissal that concludes the Mass reminds us that we who are eucharisted are sent to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ (Mass; ite missa est - go, you are sent).

1. The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion. As the second millennium after Christ's coming draws to an end, an overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service. It is the Spirit who impels us to proclaim the great works of God: "For if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!" (1 Cor 9: 16) - Redemptoris Missio

(4) The Church's universal mission is born of faith in Jesus Christ, as is stated in our Trinitarian profession of faith: "I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.... For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man." The redemption event brings salvation to all, "for each one is included in the mystery of the redemption and with each one Christ has united himself forever through this mystery." It is only in faith that the Church's mission can be understood and only in faith that it finds its basis. 

Our brothers and sisters, former Anglicans grafted through the Ordinariate into the Church, are exemplars in encouraging authentic fellowship that recognizes and honours every person created in the image and likeness of God. And, it is easy to understand why they are models of communion: they are grateful for a home where they can bring the best of their Anglican formation into communion with the Catholic Church.

The gratitude given by God grafts one to the Eucharist, which - to state the obvious - means 'thanksgiving'. The nature of the Liturgy is expressed, for example, in the lives of people who are grateful to God for His gift of Himself, His very life, and the many graces and blessings He gives to those who trust in His ways (Proverbs 3:5-6).

THE CHURCH, A MYSTERY OF COMMUNION | LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH UNDERSTOOD AS COMMUNION | Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 28th may 1992.

3. The concept of communion lies "at the heart of the Church's self-understanding"(4), insofar as it is the Mystery of the personal union of each human being with the divine Trinity and with the rest of mankind, initiated with the faith(5), and, having begun as a reality in the Church on earth, is directed towards its eschatological fulfilment in the heavenly Church(6).

If the concept of communion, which is not a univocal concept, is to serve as a key to ecclesiology, it has to be understood within the teaching of the Bible and the patristic tradition, in which communion always involves a double dimension: the vertical (communion with God) and the horizontal (communion among men). It is essential to the Christian understanding of communion that it be recognised above all as a gift from God, as a fruit of God's initiative carried out in the paschal mystery. The new relationship between man and God, that has been established in Christ and is communicated through the sacraments, also extends to a new relationship among human beings. As a result, the concept of communion should be such as to express both the sacramental nature of the Church while "we are away from the Lord"(7), and also the particular unity which makes the faithful into members of one and the same Body, the Mystical Body of Christ(8), an organically structured community(9), "a people brought into one by the unity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"(10), and endowed with suitable means for its visible and social union(11).(4) JOHN PAUL II, Address to the Bishops of the United Sates of America, 16-IX-1987, n. 1: "Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II" X, 3 (1987) p. 553.

(5) 1 Jn 1, 3: "that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ". Cf. also 1 Cor 1, 9; JOHN PAUL II, Ap. Exh. Christifideles laici, 30-XII-1988, n. 19; SYNOD OF BISHOPS (1985), Relatio finalis, II, C), 1.
(6) Cf. Phil 3, 20-21; Col 3, 1-4; Const. Lumen gentium, n. 48.
(7) 2 Cor 5, 6. Cf. Const. Lumen gentium, n. 1.
(8) Cf. ibidem, no. 7; PIUS XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis, 29-VI-1943: AAS 35 (1943) pp. 200ff.
(9) Cf. Const. Lumen gentium, n. 11/a.
(10) ST. CYPRIAN, De Oratione Dominica, 23: PL 4, 553; cf. Const. Lumen gentium, n. 4/b.
(11) Cf. Const. Lumen gentium, n. 9/c.

Gratitude expands out(ward from the pew) into hospitality (in the wider community).

The spiritual legacy of Gospel hospitality retained and celebrated in the English Patrimony, a legacy born of centuries of English Benedictine monastic influence prior to the Reformation, inspires us to be mindful that we are created in the image and likeness of God, and that by participating in the Eucharist we are formed by God's grace, grace received by consuming the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, to recognize, celebrate, honour and serve our brothers and sisters in truth and charity. To echo something of Saint Teresa of Calcutta's teaching, to meet our brothers and sisters in Christ is to meet Christ in our brothers and sisters. A community oriented to serving Jesus in our fellow brothers and sisters, and in the stranger we meet begging on the corner or despondent in a shopping mall or a colleague at work, is a community that is and must be generous in its service to the materially poor and to the spiritually impoverished. We are strengthened in that service by the reception of the Holy Eucharist:

CCC1324 The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.

Because the Eucharist is, indeed, the source and summit of the Christian life (Lumen Gentium 11), Ordinariate Catholics take very seriously the preparation and celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. For Ordinariate Catholics, as with our Extraordinary Form brethren, to speak of the Liturgy is to use a vocabulary that affirms the meaning and identity of the Mass. Thus, Ordinariate Catholics speak of Divine Worship. To refer to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as 'Divine Worship' is to acknowledge the sublime character of the Sacred Liturgy established by Jesus Christ, Lord and God, for our salvation. 

How are we to learn from and worship the Lord if we obscure His Face, the Mass, by cheapening the Mass with talk that obscures the sublime nature of the Sacrifice of the Mass, or by imposing haphazard or wayward antics that distract from encountering Him as He is?

Immersed in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we anticipate the heavenly glory, the hope of the resurrection that all faithful souls desire to attain.