With Burning Hearts
I am a Henry Nouwen fan. He speaks to me as a Christian, a pastor, and a teacher. The first time I read his book, With Burning Hearts, he reaffirmed my admiration for him. He begins with the words, “Every day I celebrate the Eucharist.”[1] Really? Every day? In my church, we celebrate it every week, and I thought that was amazingly often. I have never met anyone who celebrated the Eucharist every day! Then he goes on to say, “Still I wonder: Do I know what I am doing?”[2] Those statements together are both frightening and comforting to me. They are comforting to be affirmed that regular celebration of the Eucharist is not an anomaly but can and should be a regular practice of the faith. That practice is part of my faith tradition, but it still wonderful to hear someone speaking from another branch of the Christian faith affirm that practice. The fear arises within me when a Christian like Nouwen, who practiced the Eucharist every day, wondered that he might still be missing something important. I wonder, too.
Years ago, Nouwen’s writing opened a new possibility within me regarding the Eucharist. He challenges us to believe that the Eucharist speaks to both the theological framework of the Christian faith while at the same time encountering the actual, experienced life of the believer. Eucharist is both corporate and personal.
Perhaps nothing is more personal than the experience of loss. Losses abound within our lives; they occur regularly and frequently. Nouwen states it this way: “I am not trying to suggest that all of these losses will touch each of our lives. But as we walk together and listen to each other we will soon discover that many, if not most, of these losses are part of the journey, our own journey or the journey of our companions.”[3] Measuring these losses is a common experience, but we have to do more than measure them. We must find resolution for them; for us and for our companions.
The Eucharist offers resolution. Since Eucharist literally means “act of thanksgiving,”[4] then gratitude is a fundamental thought and expression of the Christian life. Moving from simply measuring our losses to allowing our losses to open our hearts to God opens the floodgate of the Eucharist. As Christ is able to sympathize with our weakness, our loss and our grief, He becomes the Great High Priest who invites us to the table to open our hearts to Him; to be healed, to be made whole, and to experience gratitude at the hand of the giver of life.
As a Christian, this is important to me. I find within the Eucharist the healing hand of the one who knows me best. I am reminded that He walks with me on the journey. I find within the Eucharist the healing hand of the one who walks with all of us; all of my traveling companions. As He heals and restores those who I love, my gratitude deepens, my thanksgiving begins to overflow. Then the Eucharist has become a little more the Eucharist within me.
[1] Nouwen, p 9.
[2] Nouwen, p 9.
[3] Nouwen, p 28.
[4] Nouwen, p34.