Living Monstrance

For Boston sports fans, this year has been an incredible year.  First, you’ve got the Red Sox winning the World Series.  Then, you’ve got the Patriots winning every game (OK, except the big one).  The Celtics have been the best team in basketball.  Now, Boston College won the NCAA hockey championship.  What more?  How much better could it get?  I think the mindset of Boston sports fans could be described by one word:

Victory.

When I began as a Minister of Holy Communion at a local Boston hospital, I started green.  I didn’t have any experience in a hospital environment, and so the diseases and sicknesses were a new thing to me.  Also new was the idea of walking into a stranger’s private room, a stranger who has who knows what going on .  It can be intimidating - for me and for the patient.  All in all, it took great faith and trust.

Well on one of my first times making visits, a nurse took me aside and told me that I should go into a particular patient’s room.  “She’s dying, and she asked for Communion.”

I was thinking, “What? wait, did you say dying, what do I, you know, wait a minute …”  But I went.

When I entered, I saw an elderly woman propped up in a hospital bed.  She was breathing heavily and with labor, with a fixed stare of discomfort and fear in her eyes.  Her son was seated next to her on a chair, holding her hand and crying.

For the first time in my life, I saw death.  Death was really and truly present.  I was scared.  And I felt the helplessness that I think everyone feels in the presence of death.

After a brief greeting and introduction to her son, I noticed that the woman could not communicate well.  I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just walked around to the other side of her bed to quickly begin the Communion rite.

When it came time to open the little container that carries the Hosts, something began to happen.  I gently took out one of the Hosts and elevated it for all to see.  “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world …”  As I was saying these words, I suddenly understood.

Someone greater than death was now truly and really present.  It was Him.

Jesus Christ and death are enemies, but there was no fight.  There was no contest.  Why?  Because the battle is already won.  “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Cor 15:54)

Immediately, all my fear left me.  All thoughts of helplessness and despair evaporated.  Now the tables were turned, and it was death that was left helpless.  “O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55)  The dying woman received the Lord, and as I quietly left her with her son, her eyes never left me.

The Lord wants to give us the one thing that gives us power: Himself.  When we have the Lord Jesus with us, when we really know His power, our mindset in life can be described by one word:

Victory.