FORTY-FIRST FORTY DAY FAST
FOR THE TRUTH OF GOSPEL NONVIOLENCE
JULY 1-AUGUST 9
FAST FOOD, Thirty-Ninth Helping
Those who are consecrated to continue the life, the mission, the witness of the “Lamb of God” do not kill, even to save their own lives or the lives of others. We have already seen St. Augustine marveling over the fact that by baptism we become “not only Christians, but Christ. Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ!” But by becoming Christ we also become the Lamb of God. At every Eucharist we reaffirm this identity when we receive Jesus in Communion, he is not a food we transform into ourselves; rather, we are transformed more fully into him. St. Augustine instructs us, speaking of Communion: “Be what you consume and consume what you are.” But the particular identity of Christ on which the Church focuses at Communion time is his identity as “Lamb of God.” The Liturgy repeats this phrase with insistence five times before Communion. To receive Christ in Communion is to reassert our identity with him precisely as “Lamb of God.” It is to accept our role as Lamb of God and commit ourselves again to “endure evil with love” as Jesus did.
NO POWER BUT LOVE
Rev. David Knight, PhD (Moral Theology, Catholic University), 60 years a Catholic priest, author of forty books on Catholic Faith and teaching. For further biographical information see, https://cdom.org/father-david-buell-maria-knight-obituary/
-Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org
“Nothing is better or more necessary than love.
God is pleased with nothing but love.
One act of pure love is more precious in the eyes of God
and of the soul, and more profitable to the Church,
than all the good works together,
though it may seem as nothing.”
– St. John of the Cross
God is pleased with nothing but love.
One act of pure love is more precious in the eyes of God
and of the soul, and more profitable to the Church,
than all the good works together,
though it may seem as nothing.”
– St. John of the Cross
