Thursday, March 06, 2014

What if it is True?

I had just received communion and knelt down at my bench to reflect. As I typically do, I lifted up my eyes to watch every person at the moment they receive the Eucharist, so I can remember that the Body of Christ is being poured into each one of us, uniting us is Christ, no matter how different we are from each other. Since I was sitting at the front bench, the Eucharistic minister was distributing the Blood of Christ only a couple of feet away from me. I can hear the words "The Body of Christ" and "The Blood of Christ" over and over again.  

I thought to myself "What if it is true?" What if we are actually receiving the Body of Christ and drinking His true Blood. What if it is true? Then the thought came to my mind "I would not give my beloved anything less." Knowing our Christian God, it is true that He would not give to us anything less then His true self.

Some have hurried up proclaiming that God would not take a human form, that He only appeared human, and that He cannot suffer. They have underestimated the love of God for His beloved. They loved a God who cannot give as much ... a God who cannot give Himself. Just the same, God would not give us an appearance or a mere reminder of Himself in the bread and wine, just as much as He would not give us an appearance or a mere reminder of Himself 2000 years ago. He came Himself, the divine, in body and soul, and never ceased to give His true self since then. We must always remember Him and His sacrifice for us whenever we partake of His Body and drink of His Blood. That is what He asked us to do.

What if it is true? What if it is true that we have in our midst, even more, within ourselves, a unique and special presence of God in His divinity and humanity? What if it is true that He has never left us? What if it is true that He brings to His table the poor and the rich, the believer and the doubter, the sick and the healthy, the proud and the humble, the strong and the weak, the child and the grown up, the smart and the simple, the beautiful and the not so beautiful, the saint and the sinner? What if it is true that He feeds us all on His true Body and true Blood, and in doing so, joins us in Him, a sacred and beautiful offer to the Father, united in One Holy Spirit?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, what if it is true? What if it is truly Him? Would our God of love give us anything less?