Like many others, I went to the designated building.
I joined the line to enter the building.
As we filed in, I talked with people, exchanging pleasantries about daily life.
An authorized person extended a welcome to me, making sure to know me by name.
I took my place.
Later, another authorized person discussed what was about to happen and what they were going to give me.
This person made sure to get my consent before giving me anything.
This person gave me something.
This person directed me to my seat and told me to wait a while before leaving.
I waited a while and then I left.
What I provide here is a bare bones description of what happened when I went for my COVID vaccination. It also provides a bare-bones description of a Eucharistic liturgy.
I receive Communion so that I may be more alive, more truly myself, and more at the service of others.
I receive my vaccination so that I may be more alive and more truly myself—freed eventually from the masks and the distancing—and so that I may be at the service of others by becoming one less vector of infection in their lives. They too may move toward being more alive and more truly themselves.
Eucharistic celebration is never a self-contained affair. Neither is vaccination.
Eucharist implies and requires a discipline before and after its celebration until all are one in God.
Especially in a time when COVID is still on the rampage, the desire for health implicit in seeking vaccination requires a discipline before and after its reception until all can be free.
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