https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=9Hh—OOZF3g
So in order for this to happen, let’s say on an individual level, it also has to be happening at all levels. It has to stack up. It can’t just happen. That’s the mistake that a lot of modern religious attitudes take, is that it’s just me and God. It’s not just you and God. Because all of these things stack up. The pattern of you is the pattern of a community, and then it’s also the pattern of the world. And so Christ gives us a way for it to all stack up. And the sacraments and communion, that’s it. He takes the things that he takes a lot of. Communion is hard to talk about. Let’s talk a little bit. He takes the most basic images of what uniting together is. So there’s the eating together. There’s also certain sexual imagery of the bride and the groom joining. And so all of this, he kind of gives us as this point that we all come to and we all surround. He adds the scandal in it too. He goes all the way to the edge. He goes all the way to the edge. And he says something as crazy as eat flesh and blood. That is just crazy to say that. But you have to understand, like I said, what Christ is doing. Christ is saying, all of this, I’m going to bring all of this up together. I’m going to bring it up, all of it. None of it’s going to be left over. And so he takes the most scandalous image of offering us his own body and blood, something which is completely forbidden. And even in terms of sacrificial language, the priest would eat the bread of the sacrifice. I think never would ever drink the blood of the sacrifice, ever, ever, ever. Blood had to go down into the ground. Christ says, no, all of it, all of it. I’m bringing all of this together. And so to participate in communion is really to come together as a community. Then also, as we do that, we also have to go to confession. We have to come right in ourselves. But then we also are communing with the entire cosmos, the whole thing, all the way to the edge. And we talk about also how we are uniting with the angels as well, during the moment of communion. All of this is coming together. And this image of communion, especially, I mean, it is this eschatological moment. It is a moment that’s beyond all moments. Return to paradise, but also the holy city, all of that, the beginning and the end, smashed together, everything smashed together in communion. It’s hard to think about communion. Probably best not to, actually. That’s why the Church Fathers really do tell us to shut up about communion. I’m going to shut up now. Thank you.