Gospel Reflection for
The Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Staying Close through the Eucharist
God wants to walk at our sides, to be close to us as we journey through life, guiding, inspiring, teaching, and strengthening us. He wants to be a kind of personal trainer for each one of us, leading us towards spiritual health and maturity.
This is what God wants to be for us, but how can we allow it to happen?
It is true that we do not have Jesus with us in the same way that Mary and the Apostles did – we can’t hear his footsteps beside us as we walk down the street. But in his goodness and wisdom, he has found a way to continue to abide with us: he lives in our midst, in our neighborhoods, on our streets, through the Eucharist.
At every Mass, Christ becomes truly present in the Host: body, blood, soul, and divinity. When we receive Holy Communion, we really are receiving a transfusion of God’s own life into our weak and wounded souls.
And then, after Mass, he continues to stay with us. That’s what the Tabernacle is for. We reserve the consecrated hosts in the Tabernacle precisely because Jesus wants to stay with us, to stay at our sides, so that at any time we can come here and sit with him.
He is here for us, to be our light and our life, as the sanctuary lamp reminds us.
If we stay close to the Eucharist, through frequent communion and periodic visits to the Eucharist, we will give him the chance he needs to walk by our sides and fill us with his courage, wisdom, and peace.
As he renews his commitment to us during this Mass, let us thank him for the great gift of the Eucharist, and let’s promise that this week, starting today, we will use it well.
(From ePriest, October 2024)