May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
May the Lord Jesus Christ protect you and lead you to eternal
life. That is a very nice phrase. It is a pious thought and a thoughtful
blessing, and you have probably never heard it before. May the Lord Jesus Christ protect you and
lead you to eternal life. When a priest
is called to attend to a person who is dying, there are a series of rites that
we follow. First, we will offer to hear
last confession of the person, give them absolution and the apostolic pardon of
the Church, and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. Then, if they are able to receive it, we give
them Holy Communion. What is unique
about this Holy Communion is that the Body and Blood of Christ are given as
Viaticum, which means food for the journey.
There is a special formula for giving Holy Communion as Viaticum. After saying to the person, “The Body of
Christ,” only on this occasion are these words added: May the Lord Jesus Christ
protect you and lead you to eternal life.
The Eucharist is given as food for the final journey to the Promised
Land.
In our reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites
were given manna from heaven as food for the journey to the Promised Land. They were a people who were fleeing the
slavery of Egypt. The manna was given to
them by the Lord as their daily bread.
Each day the manna would fall from heaven. Each day the Lord provided for his people. Each day the people ate as those who had been
freed from slavery. They were slaves no
longer. The Lord God had delivered them
and now by the hand of Moses, the Lord was leading his people to the Promised
Land. They were fed manna from heaven
because they had been set free.
The daily gift of manna from heaven kept the people on the
journey to the Promised Land. Without
the daily gift of manna, the people would have likely returned to the slavery
of Egypt. They would have traded their
freedom for food. They would have given
up the promise of the Promised Land without the gift of manna from heaven. They were fed manna from heaven so that they
could remain free.
Our manna does not fall from the sky. Certainly our manna is from heaven, but it
does not fall from the sky. Saint Paul
reminds us that we have a participation in the work of the Lord God. The Lord Jesus invites us to be part of the
work that he is doing. We participate in
the Body and Blood of Christ in our life of worship, our life of service and in
particular in our reception of the Lord Jesus in Holy Communion. Like the Israelites, we are a people who have
been set free from bondage. We have been set free from sin, death, and the
devil by the cross of Jesus Christ and through the waters of Baptism. We have been claimed as children of the Most
High God. We are slaves no longer. We have been invited to the Promised Land. The Eucharist is given to us because the Lord
God has set us free. The Eucharist is
our manna from heaven that feeds us on our way to the Promised Land and keeps
us from returning to slavery.
May the Lord grant us the grace to continue to live in the
freedom of the children of God and may the Lord Jesus Christ protect us and
lead us to eternal life. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes
Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
