The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, and Father Dave welcomes Dominican friar Father Gregory Pine to discuss how it is also the key to our very identities. Father Gregory is professor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and the author of “Your Eucharistic Identity: A Sacramental Guide to the Fullness of Life.”
“The basic idea is that folks are asking questions about identity,” Father Gregory begins. “It’s kind of confusing or discombobulating to ask the question of identity, because the ordinary places that you would ask it, like your family or your political or church community, aren’t necessarily the easiest places in which to ask it.”
“It’s an internet age, and so sometimes you ask people whom you don’t necessarily know, but whom you kind of follow from a distance. It’s a strange set of circumstances,” he continues. “The proposal of the book is that it’s fine to ask questions of identity, provided that we ask them to the Lord, and that we create space to hear what he says back.”
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Father Gregory dives into philosophical concepts, beginning with how God created us. “The most basic thing you can say about a creature is that he doesn’t make himself. We receive our lives. Our lives are a gift, and it might not be the gift that we would choose for ourselves. A lot of growing up and coming into the fullness of life is recognizing that it’s a good gift.”
He next reflects on how we are made in the image and likeness of God. “We’re relational in the fact that we have the capacity to know God and to love God. God, in his generosity, gives us his own knowledge and his own love as our very wherewithal, which is wild,” Father Gregory notes. “In making our lives a gift back or a kind of sacrifice, we come to an appreciation of who we are.”
They discuss the signs and symbols present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. “When you approach the Sacraments, you’re approaching a powerful sign, because it’s a sign that makes men holy; It brings about what it signifies,” Father Gregory says. “We’ve got bread and wine. We associate bread with nourishment and sustenance. We associate wine with festivity and hilarity. What does that mean for us? They bring [these graces] to bear in our lives, which is the virtue of charity. They stir us up. They kindle the grace of charity in our hearts and make flame forth more ardently.”
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“How do you get bread? How do you get wine? …Out of many grains, one loaf, and out of many grapes, we fill one chalice. So too, out of many Christians, the celebration of the most holy Eucharist makes the people of God. It makes the mystical body and makes one Church,” Father Gregory continues. “My encouragement is that sometimes when we go to Mass, and we’re like, I have to get everything out of Mass now. But if we just attend to the signs patiently, trusting that God will make us as holy as he makes us, and that these signs are ordained and instituted for our sanctification — then there’s a lot to profit from there.”
He continues reflecting on our role in the mystical body of Christ. “When you hear these conversations about identity, it’s clear that everyone wants to be unique and everyone wants to belong. It seems like those things are in tension, but I don’t think they’re contradictory. I think you can see them play out in the mystical body, because God has a place for us in his body,” Father Gregory says. “It might be small and it might be humble, but it’s precious. He wills it for us, but it also knits us together with the Christian community. It gives us a home and a genuine place in which to abide.”
