Thin places

After my father’s death, my understanding of the mystical nature of the Eucharist expanded in a profound yet comforting way.

I heard anew the words of the Great Thanksgiving where we are invited to join with “angels, archangels and all the company of heaven” to sing the Sanctus, the Holy, Holy. My father and I shared a love of music and often sang together. I suddenly understood the two of us were still singing together, there in the Holy, Holy, me here on Earth and Dad among the company of heaven. What comfort this gave to me then!

I came to understand the Eucharist as a thin place, as Celtic people would call it, a moment when the veil between this place and the other side of God’s commonwealth is lifted and we are joined together. I don’t know how this all happens, but I accept that it does.

Week in, week out, I come to the table, to that thin place when I stand with the Holy One together with my ancestors. The divide between this world and the next is opened and we are one.

This message is excerpted from “A thin place” by Linda Post Bushkofsky from the October 12, 2015, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today we commemorate Columba, 597; Aidan, 651; Bede, 735; renewers of the church.

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