It is late in the day. A little boy is tired of playing. He’s tense and miserable; agitated. He starts to whine. The mother is also tired, but must think about cooking dinner. She knows in that moment what to do. She scoops up the boy, and without speaking, holds him close to her heart.
My friends, this is a wonderful image. And it reminds me of today’s feast. Each of us comes to the Eucharist when we are overwrought and needy. We bring everything to the table. Our new love, our old hatred, our recent success and past failure. Our job loss or promotion. Our engagement our divorce.
We bring doubts and hopes. And we invite Jesus into our lives, with all of life’s light and darkness. You see, God wants us to be closer to Him. To hear Him and touch Him. We wants to be so close that there is nothing between Him and us. Nothing to separate or divide us from Him. No distance.
St. Paul echoed this when he said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We become what we receive. Christ and I become one.”
What does this say to us in our everyday lives? The world will not always recognize how brilliant and bright you are. But in spite of this and in spite of what life might bring us, we are not alone. The One who suffered and died for us is in us. He is part of us.
He will help us live with disappointment, the illnesses that sap our strength and our spirit. The hard knocks that life gives us.
Jesus is God for us, God with us. God within us. As you come forward today, remind yourself who it is that you are receiving. You are receiving the same Christ who was born in Bethlehem. The same Christ who died on the cross. The same Christ who rose from the dead.
When you think about it, it is so incredible that it is hard to imagine. Yet we know by faith it is true. Only a loving God could give us such an unimaginable gift.
He only has His body and blood to give. The final full measure of His love for us. We remember this moment at every Mass, when it is said by the priest, “This is My body, which will be given up, for you.”
Thank you, Father, for the good reminder that Jesus, my Lord and my God, even wants to be near me. Me, who have so often failed him and others. Renewed faith! Thank you, Father, for your continued efforts to bring Jesus to us and us to Jesus! Blessings!
To have JESUS with and in us gives us the fire of faith, hopea and JESUS’ love.