19th Sunday - Fr. Leo

Around the world, the Catholic Church is engaged in a Eucharistic revival.  Last moth, Indianapolis hosted thousands of religious and laity for a week of renewal and celebration of the Eucharist. Our Archdiocese is offering many opportunities to participate in special events centered around the Eucharist.

The value of these efforts is not the rituals alone, though they are imperative.  What is important. is the presence of Christ that is experienced in our celebrations.  The Eucharist isn’t magic, it is ultimate mystery. Christ who always was, is and will be, left his physical body and sent us the gifts of the Holy Spirit through which the eternal Christ comes to live in us and continue his loving mission of healing and reconciling through us.

So everything we read about Christ in the Scriptures, is with us now.  The Jesus who heals and guides is our healer and guide.  As our good Shepard, he comes to live in us that we may live in him.  For us, there is no spiritual life except in Christ, for through him we become embraced through God’s grace by the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

As we can not wrap our heads around the mystery of the Eucharist in our receiving Holy Communion, the best thing is to be still with Christ and share in a silence that unveils a oneness beyond words, the experience of our sharing in the grace of the unimaginable Other: God. 

In this experience, we become living Tabernacles of God through grace.  In the end, this is the sole goal of Christ in giving us his Eucharistic presence.  The Lord is not an object but a presence. Not located but totally present in the Body and Blood of Christ. This bread is the bread of life that causes us to live forever as Christ says in todays Gospel.  Such a mystery we receive and consume in humble prayer and adoration!  Sit with this mystery and let the Lord enter your deepest wordless self.