In the days before Jesus, we experienced God’s words through Moses or Elijah or some other prophet. God spoke to us only through others. In the letter to the Hebrews, we read “in the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son.” Then things changed!

When Jesus became flesh and walked among us, things improved.  Jesus brought a special message from His Father. In fact, every word Jesus taught and preached opened wide his Father’s mind and heart, allowing us a rare glimpse of who God, the Father truly is, and what God expects from his children. And when we do our best to live faithfully to what Jesus preached, we experience Our God, because we are following in Jesus’ footsteps. To live in this manner delights God, for He sees in us the brothers and sisters of His Son Jesus

Now Jesus goes even deeper in pleasing his Father, when he offers himself as the living bread come down from heaven. This living bread Jesus offers his followers is Eucharist.  When we “eat this bread and drink this cup” it brings an even fuller experience of God, for it awakens in us an inner conversion. Christ comes into us and we are in Christ, just as the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father.

Think about it. When we eat his body and drink of his blood, we are invited to live in God’s household sharing in his goodness and abundance in the same way the Trinity does.  We, Jesus’ followers, “eating this bread and drinking this blood” are consuming the Father’s “special message.”  This message is the Father’s coaching and guiding us on our pilgrimage through life, while showing us God’s loving and caring side.

The sweetness flowing from Eucharist turns fears of the unknown into steadying and strengthening reassurances for each step we take. This “living bread from heaven” soothes any doubt of Jesus ever leaving, whether our roads be rough or jagged.

Jesus exhorts us to spend time reflecting and understanding what exactly eating “this living bread” truly means. When we do, we will see how Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” in the present moment of our journey.

When we  realize how Jesus overseers us to our finish line, we can better understand with our own eyes and heart the profound love Jesus has for us, as he accompanies and feeds us through  Eucharist.  

Every spring my mother looked for the crocuses. Why?   “Because even with snow all around crocuses find a way to appear and show their colors,” she reminded us. Their presence brought her broad smiles and brilliant hope that spring was soon to come.  Like Eucharist crocuses signal more beauty is on its way.

While we walk this earth, we have Eucharist, a gracious gift of an experience of God until we speak face to face in God’s own household.  

The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen