This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Prayer After Communion for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
May this heavenly mystery, O Lord, restore us in mind and body, that we may be coheirs in glory with Christ, to whose suffering we are united whenever we proclaim his Death. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
What is on your mind when you receive Holy Communion? It might be a quick thought about “The Body of Christ, Amen,” and you look for your pew, or it might even be a quick check of the time.
A more proper response might be to ask yourself how this Holy Communion will change you.
This prayer, however, tells us that the heavenly mystery, the bread, wine, and our personal offerings, offered to God, are changed, given back to us in the Eucharist, and they restore us in mind and body.
In the Latin form of the prayer, for mind, we find the word mentis, which means the intellect. Mentis conveys the concepts of the ability to think and understanding, of making decisions, and even a person’s mood or attitude. The mind is the soul’s ability to think, reason, and will.
The body and the soul, which includes the mind, are so woven together that “in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” (CCC #365) The body and the mind, are inseparable. They were are created by God and they were created to be good.
As I pondered the restoration of the mind and body, I thought back to the Garden of Eden. Sin entered the world through mind and body when Eve believed the lies of the enemy and ate the fruit. Salvation came to the world through mind and body when Mary said, “Yes,” and through her body, God’s Son would be born. You and I experience the restoration of mind and body when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist.
As I meditated on this prayer, I realized that I had not really considered the body in my mental prayer at Communion. However, the body is very much a part of our prayer in the Mass; we stand for respect of the Gospel, the Word of God, and we kneel in reverence during the Eucharistic prayer. We walk to the altar just like Jesus walked to the Cross, united with Jesus in an offering of self. We walk from the ordinary to the sacred and accept HIs invitation. The body reflects what is on our mind.
Just like the body knows the prayer at mass, when you have a specific place to pray in your home, your body will soon become accustomed to the space and the posture, and your body and mind will naturally enter into prayer.
Now that we are restored, we become coheirs in glory, which gives us the privilege to offer our suffering in union with the Death of Jesus.
It may sound strange to say that our suffering is a privilege, but it becomes a gift to us when we can surrender the worldly desires and the distractions to make more room for God. We imitate Jesus who emptied Himself (Phil 2:7). We, too, die to self, only to be restored in the Resurrection of Jesus.
I love the promise in this prayer, that when we unite ourselves with His Death, are we restored and made coheirs with Jesus. He gives Himself to us in such an intimate way that we hold Him in our bodies. It is now up to us to make the mind-body connection to praise Him for making us new.