Through him, With him, In him in the Unity of the Holy Spirit

Through Him, With Him, In Him!

Words that promote the glory of Christ in the Doxology that tells us of his glorious resurrection and the exaltation of the greatest prayer in the Holy Mass.  (Rom 11: 36).

“The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.  Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”  (CCC 1377).

Of all the Catholics who in their minds follow the celebrant's words in the doxology, hear them and adhere to their strength, how many understand the deep relationship to the meaning of these words.

Through him;  In the beginning God already saw how mankind would deny him and turn away from his glorious gift of creation and like in the days of Noah wanted to destroy the gift of humanity that already wanted a life that satisfied the very evil of sin through pride.  The early words in the Eucharistic prayer call upon the Father with supplements of sorrow for our sins that placed his Only Son on the cross.   Yet, that is the only way to complete the theology of God’s pure manner to satisfy the Noah process.  (Gn 7: 5 - 12)

With him;  As we, a fallen race, try to find a manner to understand the path that has allowed us to find a reality of this Incarnated Son of God, our trek must be for us to pick up our cross daily and follow him.  The Eucharistic prayer denotes the pattern of finding our humility as compared with the Son of God.  This road we want to find brings us to the only way of salvation.  Herein, we can find the walk towards Calvary as we walk along with Jesus.  (Lk 9: 23).

In him;  After the words of Doxology, we can look beyond the testimony of Jesus Christ when he is raised from the dead;  a reality where he has overcome death.  It is here that you and I must pick up the reality of evangelization to extend the words of Jesus to go into the whole world.  Then Jesus approached them and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”  (Mt 28: 18 - 20).

From the ”Mystery of the Church”  by John Powell, S.J.;   We find the mystery of “Through him” as a way that God keeps hidden from man his plan to share his life and love with man.  (Col 1: 26).

“With him” becomes a matter of seeing the essence of Christ, but like a silhouette this mystery is revealed in Christ as we move through the steps of unwinding the mystery hidden for ages.

(Col 1: 24 - 26). 

Finally, our third mystery is found through humanity; as the mystery realized in us.  As Christ  is risen from the dead, we too must take the words Christ revealed and become the reality of the mission Jesus laid out before us.Paul tells the Collosians (Col 1: 25). that the mystery is “Christ in you.”  

It is through the Mystery of the Church that God prescribed the steps that we pronounce when the Doxology is sung and our Amen is the truth that we believe.

Ralph B. Hathaway