The aroma of freshly brewed coffee climbs up the stairs to meet you as you descend into the early hours of the day. You settle securely into a comfortable chair as you savor the coffee on this winter day, enjoying the scene framed by your kitchen window, whether it is the impressive skyline of a bustling city or the serene landscape of the familiar countryside. As you soak in those moments, you hear the familiar sound of your youngest child descending the stairs. He greets you with a sunny smile as he climbs into your lap and rests his head upon your heart. You feel him breathe slowly, in and out as he senses the beating of your heart.
Moments like these are far from inconsequential or routine. As a matter of fact, they have the potential of becoming sacred. The visible world around us—full of sights, sounds, smells, touches, and tastes—is the familiar landscape of life that reveals so much more: the very mysteries of God. By learning a ‘new way’ of sensing the material realities around us, we can truly become attuned to the deepest mysteries of God. This is what the Catholic Church means when she talks about sacramentality, or the sacramental worldview.
Let’s take the image from above. The little boy in your arms can be a sign, a reminder of the intimacy that you enter into every time you encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. You, like the child, are embraced by Jesus, and experience the consolation of hearing his heart beat for love of you. The visible moment of embracing a child draws your heart to contemplate the invisible love that you are embraced by at every Mass, with every Holy Communion.
To See with a Eucharistic Lens
This is the final article in a series I have called And Now I See. Over the past year, as this short story illustrates, I have walked with you toward another way of seeing, to see with a Eucharistic lens. Through focusing on elements of the liturgy, these articles have explored how we can develop a sacramental worldview as we look at our own lives and at the world itself. This beautiful world God fashioned and the things that human beings create (if they are ordered toward the good) are signs that—if we learn how to read them—point us to God and the fullness of life he has prepared for us in heaven. When we learn to read the signs that surround us at every moment of our lives, we become attuned to the hidden realities of God’s grace.
This, in turn, enables us to live a Eucharistic life, first by enabling us to participate fully, actively, and consciously in the Mass, our highest prayer. Secondly, flowing from our experience of the Eucharist, we learn to see one another and the world around us through a truly Eucharistic lens: we learn to see all things with the eyes of Christ.
The familiar ‘things’ become sacred signs that point us to Jesus, who reveals God fully to us through the Incarnation. Christ leads us to his Church, the “universal sacrament of salvation” (Lumen Gentium, no. 48), and through her he unites us to himself. Our senses, informed and conformed to the sensibilities of our Catholic Faith, are transformed into portals that direct us to the fullness of the living God.
Bells Carry a Timeless Message
Now as we conclude this series in the middle of the season of Advent which prepares us for Christmas, I thought we would end by reflecting on bells. Whether a school bell, an alarm bell, windchimes or a handbell used by a choir, bells communicate important moments and fill our minds with melodies. The bells can remind us of the angels who announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds (Luke 2:15-20), which we recall every time we sing the Gloria at Mass, sometimes accompanied by bells at Christmas Mass and during the Easter Vigil. And, in some parishes, bells are rung during the Eucharistic Prayer—first, during the epiclesis, the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine, and then during the Institution Narrative, when the ordinary bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ.
Finally, there are the bells of a church steeple. The echo of the bells travels across space and time, resonating in the ears of Christians and non-Christians alike. As renowned liturgist Fr. Romano Guardini notes, “High and quick, or full-toned and measured, or roaring deep and slow, they pour out a flood of sound that fills the air with news of the Kingdom” (Sacred Signs, page 35).
Just as the voices of angels ring out over lowly shepherds announcing the Good News, so do the bells of our churches carry that timeless message around the globe. And those same bells echo, in a mysterious way, the very voice of Christ, who still calls out to us, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).”
Image by u_aujo95tjd9 from Pixabay
