Spanish Basque
Jesuit Pedro Arrupe had a particularly moving experience of Eucharist, as told
in Fr. James Martin’s The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything:
While visiting his
brother Jesuits in a poor barrio in
Latin America, Fr. Arrupe celebrated Mass for the local people in a small
building frequented not only by people, but by cats and dogs as well. Afterwards, Fr. Arrupe was invited to the
house of a parishioner, where he had his own unique experience of the gifts of communion. As he tells the story,
When [Mass] was over, a big devil whose
hang-dog look made me almost afraid said, Come to my place. I
have something to give you. I was undecided; I didn’t know whether to
accept or not, but the priest that was with me said, Accept, Father, they
are good people. I went to [the man’s] place; his house was a hovel nearly on the point
of collapsing. He had me sit down on a
rickety old chair. From there I could
see the sunset. The big man said to me, Look,
sir, how beautiful it is! We sat in silence for several minutes. The sun disappeared. The man then said, I
didn’t know how to thank you for all you
have done for us. I have nothing to give
you, but I thought you would like to see this sunset. You liked it, didn’t you? Good evening.
And then he shook my hand.
Where Fr. Arrupe celebrated
Eucharist with a capital E, the man was offering him communion of a different
kind: the sharing of all he had to offer. An ample reason to give thanks.
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