Phil Coulter wrote a beautiful song, “The Old Man”

The tears have all been shed now,

We’ve said out last good-bye.

His soul’s been blessed,

He’s laid to rest,

And now I feel alone.

He was more than just a father,

A teacher, my best friend.

He can still be heard

In the tunes we shared.

When we play them on our own.

And I never will forget him.

For he made me what I am.

Though he may be gone,

Memories linger on,

And I miss him, the old man.

 

Jesus Christ gave us Himself in “The Eucharist” so we could meet Him, become one with Him and remember Him.  The Eucharist “…the most ordinary and the most divine gesture imaginable. That is the truth of Jesus.  So human, yet so divine; so familiar, yet so mysterious; so close, yet so revealing!”  (Nouwen “With Burning Hearts”)

The Second Vatican Council taught us the Eucharist is the “…source and summit of Christian Life.”  The Eucharist is the heart of the Church’s life, it  (the Eucharist) literally means, “act of thanksgiving.”  To live the Eucharist means living a life of gratitude; it means seeing life as a miracle. “Belief in the Eucharist gathers people together.  It affirms their communal faith…the honor [we] Catholics show to the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood is not a narrow expression of shallow pity.  It is …an expression of our recognition of the presence of God in all that is created.”  

(This Sunday Scripture, June 18, 2006)

The Eucharist is the Divine kiss, the Divine embrace, the Divine love given to us to bind us to Christ in our journey here on earth.  The Eucharist affirms.  We have been chosen to be disciples of Christ in the world and to the world.

Today take a few minutes to reflect on the profound reverence that we should have for the Eucharist, for the awesome gift of Eucharist! And on the responsibility we have to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, to our world!

May God Be Praised!