Passport
Originally scheduled for December 5
Those of you who have traveled abroad will certainly recognize
the requirement to have a passport. This little blue book, with your
name and your vital information in it, is necessary to pass
international borders. Losing your passport can leave you stranded
at the airport, waiting for the next flight. It's a small item, but
a necessary one. Interestingly enough, the passport is categorized
by the country that issues it. It doesn't matter where you're going;
it matters where you call home.
In some senses communion is like a passport. It is a small thing;
it takes very little time. Indeed, the elements we take are
physically small and of themselves. Like the passport, it is also a
necessary thing for the Christian. In a sense, it marks the fact
that you have crossed a border — the border between the worldly life
and its lack of hope, and the Christian life full of hope. Communion
tells the world where you call home. By taking communion, you
declare to the world that this world is not your home, you are just
passing through.
As any business traveler can tell you, the world's favorite
destination is home. Some frequent fliers like to brag about how
many countries they visited in how little time. But
eventually bone weariness sets in, and you long for home.
Perhaps you hadn't looked at it this way, but your passport is your
guarantee that you will be allowed to go back home. If you lose your
passport in some foreign country, we might just not let you come
back. Communion proclaims that you are one of us, and headed home to
the same destination.
So take heart, traveler, your passport was issued by your
heavenly country. By the power of the cross your Lord will welcome
you home. Each time you take communion, you celebrate this fact.
