The latest in the Saint Gregory’s Days of Reflection, “The Eucharist: The Sacrament of Transformation” was held June 22. The day started with Mass and was followed by a presentation by Father Boniface Copelin, O.S.B., the prior of the monastery and its vocations director.
“When we think of the Eucharist and the transformation, we commonly give thought to the change that takes place in the elements – that is the bread and the wine becoming the body and blood of Christ. This is the change that the Church has defined as transubstantiation and we hold it as an article of faith,” Father Boniface said.
Using the writings of Irenaeus and Augustine, Father Boniface described the importance of understanding what the Eucharist does for us.
“It is in the consumption of the Eucharist that we become parts of the body of Christ. You are what you eat – you become what you eat with the Eucharist. Oneness in Christ through the Eucharist. We are not meant to be disembodied spirts, but that our complete salvation is body and soul, and the Eucharist bring us to that,” he added.
What Irenaeus is saying according to Father Boniface is, “if you want hope for resurrection here, it is in the Eucharist. Here in this food, which looks like bread and which we eat like bread. But, here it not only nourishes our body to get us through the day but also nourishes our body and prepares it for that day that will be forever.”
Talking about her first Day of Reflection, Mary Coody, 90, of Shawnee, said, “I wanted to know more deeply the Eucharist. I got a lot more than I expected. (Father Boniface) is very good, very thorough. It’s a joy to be here. Our priests are just so precious to our community.”
Father Boniface talked about the unity with God and, in turn, the unity with the brothers and sisters in our lives.
“When we eat other food, we break it down mechanically and then chemically into smaller molecules that our bodies can absorb and then rearrange into what our bodies need. Being digested into his body and turned into his members, we will be what we receive,” he explained.
He asked the group to think about how the Eucharist is transforming us. What would I have become without this?
“Unity – everything is connected, and we all are connected, each one of us to the other,” Father Boniface said. “Is there a distinction between being in the body and being part of the body? I think there is, we eat this, and it doesn’t just sit inside of us it becomes part of us but much more importantly it makes us a part of it. That’s what we forget.
“Do we really spend time on our notion of unity? I didn’t realize this until I became a monk and a priest, but I thought everyone in parishes just got along. I ask you – in your parishes – do you think about how we are united as part of the same body as Christ? Remember there is only one body of Christ. How are we in our parish working on modeling that? Because that’s what we must do,” Father Boniface said.
During discussion time, Beverly Mosman reflected on how she believes God brings us toward unity.
“As we become like Christ with our true selves living the abundant life that Christ has created for us, we are overcoming the ego of the false self and we do that in community. We all are like lumps of coal, we are diamonds in the rough and we can run into someone who is irritating you or driving you crazy and, in effect, God has given you that person to help polish you into the diamond he is making you,” she said.
Two of the books brought up during discussion were “A Father Who Keeps His Promises” and “Consuming the Word,” both by Scott Hahn.
Judy Hilovsky is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Photo: Fr. Boniface Copelin, O.S.B, spoke to a group of nearly 30 participants, during the latest Days of Reflection at St. Gregory’s Abbey. Photo Judy Hilovsky.