Prayer After Communion 28 Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Prayer After Communion for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

We entreat your majesty most humbly, O Lord, that, as you feed us with the nourishment which comes from the most holy Body and Blood of your Son, so you may make us sharers of his divine nature. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

There are a number of contrasts that can be found in the prayer this week. 

The first is the contrast between the majesty of God and the humbleness of our entreating, or our begging. We’re not going to God like He’s our buddy, we’re going to Him fully aware of His majesty and of our lowliness. We stand before Him and present ourselves to Him just like Jesus did at the Incarnation, He emptied himself, He made Himself of “no reputation.” (Phil 2:5 KJV)

The next contrast is similar, it is the difference between our input and God’s. God does the work. He feeds us with the Body and Blood of His son, He makes us sharers of His divine nature. 

We have two jobs. The first is to humbly beg and it’s not just lightly humble, we need to go to Him just like Jesus came to us, willing to empty ourselves, to be of “no reputation” because when we are empty of self, we can be filled with God. Our other job is to receive what the Father has to offer.

Another contrast in the prayer is the difference between the nourishment from God and what we nourish our bodies with.

Our bodies are easily taken care of with food and water, however our spiritual nourishment can only come from God. The prayer tells us that this nourishment is the most holy Body and Blood of Jesus. It is the risen and glorified Body and Blood of Christ.

Someone once told me that they thought the life of Jesus was a depressing example of the Christian life, but they did’t look far enough because after His death, comes the best part - the Resurrection. Jesus defeats death and when He was raised into Heaven, “He raised us up together with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:6 AMP)

As sharers of the divine nature, we are part of the family of God. We no longer follow sin because our old nature is defeated. We live in the power from on high to defeat temptation when it comes. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and we are seated in heavenly places with Jesus.

I don’t remember if I was taught the fulness of this truth when I joined the Church. I remember being taught the rubrics, how to hold your hands and what to say. When the priest says, “The Body of Christ” and you respond, “Amen.” 

Amen means to be faithful, established, or to believe someone or something. When we say “amen” we aren’t just proclaiming in our belief that this piece of bread is the Body of Christ, we are proclaiming that we believe it all. We believe the Scripture, we believe the truths of the Faith, and we believe that we are receiving the Body of Christ. When we say “Amen,” we agree that we are, indeed, sharers of God’s divine nature and the divine nature of Jesus stands in contest to our human nature.

There is something special about having a human nature, and that is knowing that Jesus knows what it is like and He deeply desires to share his divine nature with us.

Thanks for praying with me,
Julie