Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 8/16/15
I have here my First Communion picture, but I also have here a bag of trail mix. I’ll explain both but, first, the picture. I made my First Communion on May 1, 1955, and, even if I do say so myself, what a handsome little guy I was! As we all know, we make a big deal out of First Communions. We invite special people over, we dress up with special clothing, we take lots and lots of pictures and eat lots and lots of food and have lots and lots of smiles. First Communion is a big thing. But did you ever stop to realize that to speak about a “First Communion” implies that there is also a “Last Communion”? And there is a Last Communion: the last Communion before we die. It even has a special name; it’s called “Viaticum,” a Latin term which means “food or provisions for a journey,” the journey of death, the journey of passing from this world to the next.
While we all have seen First Communions, I would imagine that very few of us have ever seen a Last Communion, the giving of Viaticum. It’s quite a beautiful ritual. It involves a plenary indulgence forgiving not only the person’s sins but also the temporal punishment due to those sins. It involves the renewing of Baptismal Promises, reminding us that it’s in Baptism that we begin Heaven and the journey to Heaven. It also involves specific prayers for the person who is dying. Again, it’s quite a beautiful ritual. What it underscores is that Jesus is our companion. The word “companion” again is a Latin word made up of two other Latin words: the word “Com” coming from the Latin word for “with” and the word “Pan” coming from the Latin word for “bread.” In other words, the word “companion” means one who “shares bread with another,” or, in actuality, one who “shares life with another.” And that is exactly what Jesus does in Viaticum: he comes to be food for that journey and comes to be that person’s companion as he or she makes that final journey. But Jesus is not only the “companion” of the one who is making the journey of death, as in the ritual of Viaticum. Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist to our “companion” everyday as we journey through each day of our lives.
That’s where this bag of trail mix comes in. I did a little googling about trail mix on the Internet. Did you know that the concept of mixing various items like nuts, grains, seeds, and dried fruits, the main components of trail mix, has roots going back to the year 1658 and that all sorts of cultures and countries use it as a “pick me up” giving strength and energy to travelers? In fact, that’s who Jesus came to be for us, our daily com- panion who gives us a “pick me up” when we face the challenges of life. However, a bag like this can be easily forgotten or left behind. So too with Jesus as our daily companion: we can forget him and leave him behind.
Advertisers have given us all sort of tag lines to help us remember their products. Some of the best would be the following: Energizer’s “Keeps going and going and going”; Hallmark’s “When you care enough to send the very best”; Yellow Pages’ “Let your fingers do the walking”; and M&Ms’ “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” Then, of course, there is American Express’s“Don’t leave home without it.” For us who are so inclined to leave Jesus, our daily companion, behind, we might use this last one with regard to the Eucharist, changing it a bit from “Don’t leave home without it” to “Don’t leave home without Him!”