"Jesus Christ is going to touch you today"
A Pre-Communion Exhortation by Abp. Lazar Puhalo
All Saints of North America Monastery – October 23, 2022

Transcript below video

Luke 7:11-16

At that time, Jesus went to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her.

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep." And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, arise." And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.

Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited his people!"

Preparation for Communion

Brothers and sisters, today, as we approach communion, it is well that you believe in Jesus Christ. But do you believe Jesus Christ? Do you understand what the Law was about? Today, Jesus Christ gave us a revelation about what the Law was truly about. In the Old Testament, a dead body was unclean. If you would touch that body, you couldn't even enter the Temple because you were rendered unclean.

But how did God define the Law? If you were the High Priest and you were heading for the Temple to serve the liturgy—even to enter the Holy of Holies—according to the Law of Moses, you were unclean if you touched a dead body and entered the Temple.

But according to the explanation of the Law that was given, if you were the High Priest, vested to go to the Temple to serve, and you came upon a dead body but there was no one to bury them, then you should take the body yourself, carry it, and bury it properly. because the law of Mercy is greater than the law of cleanliness [or purity].

But today as we approach Holy Communion, we come near to the body of Jesus Christ. And we understand that this time, it is a life-giving body—that this time, the touch of Jesus Christ raises our souls from spiritual deadness and fills us with life again. When we approach Holy Communion, the only thing that should be in our mind is that our Lord Jesus Christ is offering himself to us—that he is actually reaching out to touch what is considered unclean. To touch our dead souls—to touch the deadness in our hearts and give us life—to quicken our spirits and raise us up from the dead works of the world around us

The Law came from Moses but grace and peace through Jesus Christ, who manifested God in his true nature to us. He is the very Image of the Creator, the very image and likeness of the Godhead, bodily. And he reveals the true nature of God to us, whereas before, we had only an idolatrous idea about God.

So today, as you approach for Holy Communion, bear it in your mind that Jesus Christ is reaching out and touching us, who might be, according to the Law, unclean—and raising us to life—to new life—to spiritual life—to everlasting life. Today, we receive that grace and peace of Jesus Christ in the Holy Mysteries of the communion of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.

And why did he establish this ritual to give us his body and blood at every liturgy, except to call us back out of the deadness of the world into the life of the kingdom of God. When we receive Holy Communion, we manifest the fact that we're citizens of the kingdom of God, that we a royal priesthood, that we are a kingdom of priests.

So today, as you approach Holy Communion, contemplate in your mind as you prepare what it actually means—what it means that Jesus Christ is going to touch you today and enter into your being today and raise you from the deadness of the world around you, and the dead works of the world around you, and the vanities of the world around us.  And for this moment, to raise you, as it were, from spiritual death and bestow upon you that life that comes only from God and only from union with God. For God is life, and to be separated from God is death. To be United with God Is life.

Today, Jesus Christ will unite us with God through his own precious body and blood, and remind us again that what the world might consider unclean in its own folly, Jesus Christ considers clean and makes clean through his touch.

The only thing that can render you unclean, according to Saint John Chrysostom, is an evil disposition or a heart turned against God and turned against neighbour. Today, Jesus Christ invites us to turn toward God and toward neighbour—to receive him, to receive his touch, to receive the touch of life that makes us worthy, no matter how unclean, to enter into the Temple and receive the things of the altar—to receive the things from the Holy of Holies, because the Law of Mercy is greater than the Law of purity.

The Law of love and mercy is greater than every kind of Law because love is greater than law. As you prepare yourself to approach for Holy Communion in these few minutes, try to contemplate what it means that you're about to do—to partake of the Holy Mysteries. So you can truly rejoice in heart, having been touched with the gift of life from our Lord and God.