The Eucharist: a gift to men and women on their journey

30. If it is true that the sacraments are part of the Church’s pilgrimage through history (99) towards the full manifestation of the victory of the risen Christ, it is also true that, especially in the liturgy of the Eucharist, they give us a real foretaste of the eschatological fulfilment for which every human being and all creation are destined (cf. Rom 8:19ff.). Man is created for that true and eternal happiness which only God’s love can give. But our wounded freedom would go astray were it not already able to experience something of that future fulfilment. Moreover, to move forward in the right direction, we all need to be guided towards our final goal. That goal is Christ himself, the Lord who conquered sin and death, and who makes himself present to us in a special way in the eucharistic celebration. Even though we remain “aliens and exiles” in this world (1 Pet 2:11), through faith we already share in the fullness of risen life. The eucharistic banquet, by disclosing its powerful eschatological dimension, comes to the aid of our freedom as we continue our journey.

The eschatological banquet

31. Reflecting on this mystery, we can say that Jesus’ coming responded to an expectation present in the people of Israel, in the whole of humanity and ultimately in creation itself. By his self-gift, he objectively inaugurated the eschatological age. Christ came to gather together the scattered People of God (cf. Jn 11:52) and clearly manifested his intention to gather together the community of the covenant, in order to bring to fulfilment the promises made by God to the fathers of old (cf. Jer 23:3; Lk 1:55, 70). In the calling of the Twelve, which is to be understood in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel, and in the command he gave them at the Last Supper, before his redemptive passion, to celebrate his memorial, Jesus showed that he wished to transfer to the entire community which he had founded the task of being, within history, the sign and instrument of the eschatological gathering that had its origin in him. Consequently, every eucharistic celebration sacramentally accomplishes the eschatological gathering of the People of God. For us, the eucharistic banquet is a real foretaste of the final banquet foretold by the prophets (cf. Is 25:6-9) and described in the New Testament as “the marriage-feast of the Lamb” (Rev 19:7-9), to be celebrated in the joy of the communion of saints (100).

Clean is an old codeword used by whites so much they have forgotten that it is their way of saying he or she is an “okay negro.” End of story. The french said it best: salle negre is their way of saying a not-okay black person, i.e. a dirty black person.

A clean black man is not just clean, he is OK. This is not lost on black people. Why? Because every time a white person visits a black person’s home they will say “oh, it was so clean.” Huh? WTF.

Why comment that a black person is clean, speaks well, is hard working, and all the things that white people don’t expect black people to be? That is the point. They must still convince themselves that we are regular folks, no just human.

Heloise

Biden’s remarks could have been taken in a far more racist way by the lamestream media and the PC drones. I’ve seen the videotapes of both Biden’s and Bush’s remarks and only an unabashed race-baiter can claim with a straight face that President Bush’s remarks were “racist”.

I’m sick and tired of partisan liberal double-standards that circle the wagons around Democrats while twisting the words of Republicans and conservatives in the worst possible way. If black Americans on the liberal plantation choose to be offended by the most innocuous remarks, that’s their problem. From the very first, all we heard from old school liberals is how America is supposed to color-blind, now the neo-libs say if we are color-blind then we’re being insensitive and even more insidiously racist. It’s another reason I believe liberalism is a mental disorder, just look at all the mixed messages they have floated into the public debate which only heightens racial tensions. Northern liberals are the worst racists I’ve seen bar none. Bunch of fake superiorists. Why are there only token blacks in positions of power in the Democratic Party? Even Howeird Dean sits as the head of the DNC because white liberal powerbrokers couldn’t stand the idea of trusting the Democratic Party to a black man. The liberal plantation is alive and well in a party that only sees color and seems more than willing to use it to falsely paint their political opponents as racists.

“So Bush thinks Obama is attractive and articulate? Maybe it has to do with a proper upbringing and good education. As for his attractiveness, I saw his picture on the beach and the guy is gorgeous. Too bad he (Bush) is neither.”

Comment by Liberal in New Mexico — January 31, 2007 @ 8:47 pm

i spent alot of time writing a comment and it didnt come through, as usual. here it is in a nut shell:

this posting is petty, the conversation we’re having is petty.

is PT a think tank for hillary clinton, certainly plausible.

that said, we should be opening and ofrcing the discourse into things that we all care about: universal health care, protecting the environment, wresting control of the govt from corporate- military complex, avoiding nuclear disaster, sane foreign policy, civil rights, social justice, womens reprodutive rights, public funding of elections,etc. And talking about ways to effect that change and politicians who are vocal about these things. Take your pick.

neither Dems nor Reps are interested in allowing for a broadened discourse. We’re captive to their very narrow right of center spectrum. Really: what do you do if you have to vote between Hillary and McCain? Not much of difference there, and the difference that does exist is pretty damn minimal.

we know the Rep suck, unapologetic wealthy bigots. But the current state of the Dems is not much different. Call out the Dems for what they are, Republicans in disguise. Glom the two business parties together, there differences are superficial. at least force the important issues and non business model solutions into your vocabulary.

I like how you called out the King Troll, the Dr. of contentless comments: Michael. Good call.

People, people, people. Do we really care about this gossipy crappy posting? Right wingers certainly have no credentials of being sensitive to race, gender, religion, sexual preference. And mainstream Dems. tend to have the “pc language” down pat. But we’re talking about both business parties here, of which Obama is a full fledged member.

I’m not really sure how TP is working as a think tank for Hillary, but from what I’ve read it is credible and should be considered when commenting here. I want PT to give us more postings on substanative critiques of both parties.

I’d like to hear more ideas on how to force the Dems out of the closet as what they are: Republicans in disguise.

what most of us here care about:
universal health care, environmental protection, avoiding nuclear disaster, wresting control of govt from the corporate – military complex control, greater transparancy/publicly funded elections. Take your pick, but let’s get some thoughts on that stuff.

This whole thread seems petty to me. So let’s pull our heads out of this narrow narrow discourse of who is more racist, who is more elitist, who has done more damage, because neither Repubs nor Dems are the answer to pulling the U.S. out of the totalitarian fecal matter in which it finds itself.

Comment by paul

As a really, really, ridiculously good looking person, I’m sorry to hear of your plight. My comment was not about a person’s worth at all.

I don’t know about Biden, but I don’t think Bush was putting down blacks by raising Obama up.

My take is that Biden was a victim of two of his most obvious shortcomings, which are closely related: he speaks without thinking, and his grammar is bad. I think he meant to say that Obama is the first mainstream black candidate and that he’s bright and articulate. I agree that he was patronizing, especially by calling him articulate. (I do have a black friend who points out when black people are well-spoken and hates hearing black people mangle the language. She has harshly criticized Magic Johnson for his speech, for example. But she’s only one person, and she’s black. It’s different when a white person says it.)

This is so tortured, especially this criticism of Bush. You’re opening yourself up to charges of nitpicking. What is worse, this could turn into a big sideshow, the kind that let’s much worse words and deeds go unremarked. But that’s our biggest problem in getting our point across—we just don’t make a strong case and stick to it; we get caught up in pissing contests. And I don’t expect it to stop.

We’d be better off pointing out how Biden is a tool of MBNA and never really does anything except go on and on and on, glorying in the sound of his own voice.

Bye Joe.