This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Prayer after Communion for the Easter Vigil.

Pour out on us, O Lord, the Spirit of your love, and in your kindness make those you have nourished by this paschal Sacrament one in mind and heart. Through Christ our Lord.

This prayer begins by reiterating the Responsorial Psalm from the first reading at the Vigil Mass, “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:30) The prayer reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father’s love and the Psalm reminds us that is the Spirit who will renew the earth.

As we ask for the Holy Spirit to be poured out, we also need to recognize the difference between pouring out as from a sprinkler or from Niagara Falls. The Holy Spirit is always pouring out Niagara Falls-style, what we receive is up to us. We can be mouth wide open, or we can be a tiny mixer straw open. That decision is ours.

The next petition of the prayer is for those the Father has nourished by this Sacrament. To nourish means to provide the food or other necessities for growth, health, and good condition. When God brought the Israelites out of slavery, throughout their wandering in the desert, He nourished them with manna and water from a rock. (Exodus 17)

In a sense, you could say that Holy Communion, the Eucharist, is our manna. Actually, it is our manna but in a much more personal way. In John 6:51, Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…” Jesus nourishes us with His very self.

However, this does not mean that Holy Communion is just about me, or just about you. It is about us. Regarding the manna in the desert, Paul writes, “All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:3–4).

This paschal Sacrament, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ makes us “one” in a couple different ways.

First we become one with each other. one in mind and heart. Paul teaches us that this means we should be “of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.” (Phil 2:2)

Second, we cannot become one with each other unless we become one with Christ first.

When all receive the same, in this case we all receive the Eucharist, “me” and “you” became “we.” 

Jesus said that He speaks what the Father is saying, but in John 17, we hear Jesus’ side of the conversation to the Father, “so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us…” (John 17:21)

Sometimes it is easy to celebrate Easter as a “me.” I got a new dress, new shoes, new hat, new veil… but really, Easter is about us all, the Church.

Jesus defeats sin and death. He died to make us one. As Easter morning dawns, let us all rejoice as one - as the Church. As we rise again to give glory to God, may we leave behind the chains that we held that divided us.