Live Eucharistically: Colossians 3:17-4:1, especially vs. 17: "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." In the Epistle reading for today, the Apostle Paul admonishes the Faithful to give thanks to God in all things, establishing as a precondition that all be done in the Lord's Name with "eucharist"- with praise and thanksgiving. His initial charge is followed immediately by a series of directions concerned with everyday relationships.
Effectively St. Paul raises Eucharist, like an umbrella, to cover husbands and wives, children and parents, employees and employers. He places our daily interactions with one another in a eucharistic context, as if to say, 'Take all your life, the most mundane and the most exalted, and live it with praise and thanksgiving before God, making Eucharist to Him.'
In the decades before his repose, Father Alexander Schmemann echoed this same thought: "When man stands before the throne of God, when he has fulfilled all that God has given him to fulfill, when all sins are forgiven, all joy restored, then there is nothing else for him to do but to give thanks. Eucharist (thanksgiving) is the state of perfect man. Eucharist is the life of paradise. Eucharist is the only full and real response of man to God's creation, redemption, and gift of heaven." Let us affirm with Father Schmemann that indeed Eucharist is the source of our lives, for we experience the Kingdom of God within "everyday" relationships and roles through Eucharist. The prayer, "Thy Kingdom come on earth" is fulfilled in Eucharist. Let us consider the meaning of St. Paul's directives in today's passage in the light of Eucharist.
When wives and husbands perceive each other as God's creation and gift, their truly natural response is to give thanks to the Lord and to shape their actions toward one another in His Name. In Eucharist, marriage partners discover the key to submitting their lives to each other "as to the Lord" (vs. 23). To partners who give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus, He reveals Himself in and through their spouses. This is true because Eucharist reverses the alienating process described by St. Paul: "...although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom. 1:21). By giving praise and thanks to God, the Faithful, as their hearts are illumined, evince the Kingdom by thoughts and actions. Bitterness departs and love is facilitated (Col. 3:19).
The Orthodox practice of Baptizing children in infancy enables families to raise children under the umbrella of Eucharist, both at home and above all in the eucharistic assemblies of the Divine Liturgy. St. Theophan the Recluse points out that "The most effective means for the education of true taste in the heart is a church-centered life, in which all children in their upbringing must be unfailingly kept. Sympathy for everything sacred, pleasure in remaining in its midst for the sake of quietness and warmth...cannot better be imprinted in the heart than by a church-centered life." This is true, of course, because praise and thanksgiving are the God-given norm and constant of life. Parents never will discourage or provoke their children (vs. 21) by truly "giving thanks to God the Father through" our Lord Jesus Christ in all things.
Whenever both employers and employees approach work eucharistically, the workplace is transformed. The modern management concept of TQM, Total Quality Management, begins with the idea of "ownership" in the final product. However, when work is performed "as to the Lord and not to men," under the umbrella of Eucharist, ownership is vested in the Lord and achievement becomes the cause for thanksgiving and praise to God - for what He has achieved.
Let us commend ourselves, and each other, and all our life unto Christ our God.