Eucharist and Reconciliation

Something worth thinking about:

Jerry Galipeau shares a reflection on “one of the most challenging aspects of Eucharist,” at his blog, Gotta Sing, Gotta Pray.

This past weekend, while leading the retreat with RCIA ministers in Brooklyn, New York, I was speaking with them about the eucharist as a table of reconciliation. During that presentation, I invite people to think about those whom they consider have done unforgivable things. And then I ask them to envision these people around the table of the eucharist and somehow to imagine that the immensity of God’s reconciling love is too vast and too deep for us to come close to grasping. I told them that I believe this is one of the most challenging aspects of the eucharist; I asked them to ponder what it was that Jesus did with Peter around that charcoal fire on the seashore following the resurrection. Peter, this “rock,” who only days before said about the Lord, “I don’t even know the man,” is now reconciled around this charcoal fire with bread and fish on it with the words, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me more than these?” Scholars have often pointed to this little charcoal breakfast fire with bread and fish on it as a kind of eucharistic meal. Who do you need to be reconciled with around that charcoal fire?