Dear Parishioners:
Well, school's back in session. Schedules will take on more regularity. Students will start complaining about all the work. Things will get back to normal.
We also continue with our "four week excursion" into the Eucharist. This central core of our faith is the food of angels given to us all. God does not allow His children to go hungry. Rather He feeds us with His very own Son through the Eucharist.
John Paul II writes, From the Eucharist we all receive the grace and strength for everyday life, for living a truly Christian existence, in the joy of knowing that God loves us, that Christ has died for us and that the Holy Spirit lives in us (Agenda for the Third Millennium p. 75). I am regularly surprised by the number of our parishioners who take the opportunity to attend daily Mass.
He writes further, There must always be consistency between what we believe and what we do. We cannot live on the glories of our Christian past. Our union with Christ in the Eucharist must be manifest in the truth of our lives today: in our actions, in our sense of values, in our life-style, in our relations with others, (p. 75).
We, above all, should be examples of Christian love and faith. We are summoned by the Eucharist to live Christ's life. We have Him to help us by His powerful real presence in our very bodies when we receive Him in the Eucharist.
The challenges in life today cannot be addressed with strength of will alone. We need the help of God's greatest gift to the Church, Jesus Himself. In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you (John 6:53). When Jesus said this, people walked away and He did not say, "Wait! Come back! You misunderstood me!" Many people would not follow Him after this. I cannot explain the whole mystery, but I can and must take it on faith that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist because Jesus said it is true.
This is why it is a serious moral obligation for all Catholics to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. If we truly believe in the Real Presence of Jesus, how can we not attend, at the very minimum, every Sunday.
We have a most beautiful gift in the Eucharist. Let us not forget just how fortunate we are to have God enter our very bodies. We can't get any closer to God than this.
Fr. Bill
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