Taste and See God's Goodness
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September 8, 2023You may have already noticed by now that the theme for this year’s Parish Annual Report and Harvest Festival is the same: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” In the context of the Annual Report, the theme invites us to remember the many blessings the Lord has given us, both personally and communally. The Lord has been so good to us that he has allowed us to achieve many great things as a church. In the context of the festival, it invites us and all people to see the goodness of coming together, playing together, eating together and creating beautiful memories together. These are good things that can only come from the Lord, for He is a God of unity, and not of division.
But the theme “Taste and see that the Lord is good” has, ultimately, a Eucharistic meaning. It invites us to receive and taste the Most Precious Body and Blood of Christ and see how he sustains and strengthens us in the journey through the Eucharist. The Lord knows human dynamics so well because he dwelt among us. He knows that humanity is weak, so much so, that out of his goodness and love, he instituted the Holy Eucharist.
We are very well aware that the Mass has two main divisions: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, recognizing these two parts, teaches further that, “being so closely interconnected, they form but one single act of worship. For in the Mass is spread the table both of God’s Word and of the Body of Christ, and from it the faithful are to be instructed and refreshed” (GIRM, 28).
The image of the two tables illustrates for us that we are fed in two main ways through the Mass: through the hearing of God’s word to us and through the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Through the Word of God proclaimed, we come to know God as he reveals himself to us; we learn who we are as his people; and we learn how to live our lives in him and with one another. Through the table of the Eucharist, we are nourished in a sacramental way with the flesh and blood of Christ, for his “flesh is true food” and his “blood is true drink.” (Jn. 6, 55). Through Holy Communion, God remains in us and we remain in Him, like a branch to the vine, so that we can bear much fruit – fruit that lasts. (See Jn. 15, 5)
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in the same vein, says that “from listening to the word of God, faith is born or strengthened; in the Eucharist, the Word made flesh gives himself to us as our spiritual food. Thus, ‘from the two tables of the word of God and the Body of Christ, the Church receives and gives the faithful the bread of life.’” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 44).
I invite you then to immerse yourself deeply in the Eucharist and feed on the two tables. Both tables allow us to grow deeper in our relationship with him, to deepen our unity as a Church, to share the fruits of that unity even with those outside of the Church, and to increase our hope for the perfect unity with Christ that awaits us in heaven. Come to the Eucharist, “taste and see that the Lord is good!”
