IEC2012 Pt. 9: Eucharist, Marriage, and Family

Part 9

Eucharist, Marriage, and Family

Mr. Stephen Cummins, Accord (Marriage Ministry Outreach for Irish Bishops)

Tuesday, June 12 - 7pm

Mr. Cummins started off his talk with the oft-quoted nugget of wisdom from St. Augustine: Become what you receive. In this case, he was referring to the Eucharistic call of the marriage and its family. He thoroughly advocated for a family life rooted in the Eucharist, so that the Body of Christ can nourish and sustain the family.

He said that a husband and wife should treat each other as "subjects of infinite dignity and worth" because, in this kind of relationship, God comes between the couple and enters into their relationship. This reminds me of the image of the Trinity that I've often heard: the Father and the Son share total, complete love with each other, and the love that goes back and forth between them and to all of us is the Holy Spirit. So I think of the husband and wife as being like the Father and Son in the analogy, with the Holy Spirit radiating between them, from each of them, and to their children and everyone else.

Another explanation I've often heard about the love of God involves the "marriage of Christ" - Jesus Christ took the Church as His bride. Mr. Cummins quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who said, "Christ loved the Church and gave His life for her." The love of Christ in His perfect sacrifice is made present to us and for us in every Eucharist we celebrate as the Church, as His Body, the Body of Christ. So by living Eucharistically in your marriage and your family, you can reembrace this love of Christ each time.

He exhorted us to work to sow the seeds of the Eucharist in our families, especially to children as they are growing. He said a word especially about the struggles of teenagers and young adults lapsing from practiced faith or even forsaking their affiliation or relationship with the Church altogether - he views such challenges as being hard for the family but also hard for the Church. He thinks these struggles should be shared and felt by the whole community and the wider Church.

My favorite part? Mr. Cummins started metaphorizing on the Emmaus story, which at first elicited a mini-eye-roll, because what else could possibly be pulled from Emmaus!? Oh, the Bible, and its inexhaustible meaning... Mr. Cummins concluded that, at the heart of the Emmaus disciples' shock was the absence of Christ. They were being great hosts and learning the Scriptures from their guest, and then as they're sitting down to dinner, they realize it's Jesus just as he disappears. Dang! However, they're not actually despondent. Why? Because he left them with the Eucharist. Awesome.

Final nuggets:

• Marriage is more than a contract; it's a covenant. Flexibility and reciprocity in care are more integral than solely having formal expectations or quotas on certain things.
• Catholic parents ought to be better about viewing sacramental preparation as privilege. Too often, it is passed of to schools and/or parishes, something Mr. Cummins views as ok and necessary but not the whole thing. Parents need to play a bigger part in it as the primary educators-in-faith.