I was recently asked to write a post on Passover for an ecumenical Christian Facebook group, I admin. I love this group and was excited to write something for them. So far it’s been well received, and for that I am glad. It is such a great feeling when one can string words together people can connect to. In writing for a broad, mixed audience, and not for myself, I had to omit a big chunk of who I am. This is totally normal when you’re a writer, and normally I leave those pieces and don’t feel a need to come back to them. This week, I’ve been really struggling with not being able to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion. It’s Holy Week and I have been keenly feeling Christ’s absence.
I began to add to this little piece and work through my feelings as part of an Examen prayer and oddly enough, by turning what was a post for a mostly protestant audience into a very personal, and Catholic one, I am feeling a lot better. It’s as though by writing about Christ in the sacrament of Communion I grew close to Him again.
I didn’t have any intention of sharing – this was strictly a personal thing, but I’ve been pretty absent from this blog because of the amazing blessing that is my work and opportunities to serve my community through volunteering, I haven’t had time to focus on it. Considering we’re all taking a break from our regular lives, I figured it was a good time to return. So here it is, Passover, Plagues, and Holy Communion, just in case someone out there could use these little words I made sentences out of.
This Passover
For the first time in recent memory, nearly every nation on the globe will be gathered in their own homes, sheltering from a plague, during PASSOVER.
“But for you, the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thereby, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
This day will be a day of remembrance for you, which your future generations will celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord; you will celebrate it as a statute forever.” Exodus 12:13-14
When we receive Holy Communion, we’re intimately united with Jesus Christ. He becomes part of us. When we take part in the sacrament of Holy Communion, we are expressing not only our unity with Christ but our union with Catholics the world over. The last meal Jesus shared with His disciples was a Passover meal, where he specifically asked us to become one in body and spirit with Him. His greatest desire and ultimate sacrifice was to unite His body, blood, soul, and divinity to our own.
This Passover the Jewish people will celebrate God’s deliverance of their ancestors from death in Egypt, and we will celebrate God’s promise to deliver us from our mortal deaths. It is through His sacrifice on the Holy Cross, through His blood, our world will be saved from this plague and any others to come.
This Easter, as we celebrate His defeat over death, we may forgo our fancy hats and Sunday best, for sweats and slippers as we sit in our homes, and not together with our church families. We’ll listen to homilies from a responsible socially distant space, but our hearts will never be more close to Him, or each other, as we unite in prayer for this plague to pass over us all.
Remember our unity to Him and one another as we, the faithful body of Christ, ask for His healing over the world.
But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well. Matthew 9:22
God bless you and we all hope you are well.
Nicole Olea’s love language is communication. She does this best using her keyboard as a freelance copywriter and editor. Creative and resilient with high-level experience in social media management, content creation, and eCommerce marketing, Nicole Olea was a professional volunteer, sharing her skills with various non-profit organizations who paid her in hugs. For the last 20 years, she’s lived a quasi-nomadic life, moving across the country and the Atlantic with her active-duty husband and their three kids. She’s awkwardly stumbling toward her goal of becoming a saint. She’s got God-sized dreams and wants you to have them too!
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