It is very easy to hold a pity party and bemoan the loss of the good old days. But are the "good old days" ever lost? This is a question that was much on my mind this weekend at a celebration of a friend's 50th Anniversary of Ordination to the priesthood. As we sat around a table of friends and laughed and spoke, sometimes tearfully, of all our great memories together, I realized that we were experiencing the sacrament of the present moment just like the Apostles had with Jesus, especially at the Last Supper. "A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace." We all know this and have memorized this response from our catechisms but do we ever really think about what "sacrament" means in the seemingly ordinary moments of life. All of us sitting around the table that evening with our priest friend received a grace from sharing the bread and wine of friendship and love and memories that no one can ever take away from us, not even if priests are forced to retire, not even if churches are forced to close, not even when the leader who is to shepherd his people in his diocese falls short of his job. No, "Amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)
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