By entering into the intimacy of our innermost self, Jesus offers us the opportunity to enter into his own intimacy with God. By choosing us as his preferred dwelling place, he invites us to choose him as our preferred dwelling place. This is the mystery of the incarnation.
Precisely because it is Christ who, in Eucharistic communion changes us into him, our individuality, in this encounter, is opened, liberated from its egocentrism and inserted into the Person of Jesus who in his turn is immersed in Trinitarian communion. The Eucharist, therefore, while it unites us to Christ, also opens us to others, makes us members of one another: we are no longer divided but one in him. Eucharistic communion not only unites me to the person I have beside me and with whom I may not even be on good terms, but also to our distant brethren in every part of the world.
This transformation is possible thanks to a communion stronger than division, the communion of God himself. The word “communion,” which we also use to designate the Eucharist, in itself sums up the vertical and horizontal dimensions of Christ’s gift.
In being brought closer to Jesus in the Eucharist, we are then brought closer to other people. This why it is called, "Holy Communion."
--Pope Benedict, Corpus Christi, 2011
We all partake of the one loaf…
Do you hunger for God?
God cares for God’s people in so many ways. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that the Lord, your God, has fed you with manna in times of hunger and brought forth water for you from the flinty rock. Manna was alien to the people of Israel; they had never experienced it before. In their time of need, God provided the people with something extraordinary, something outside of their experience, taking them to that which unknown, and thereby leading them closer to him.
But the ultimate extraordinary gift of God the Father was his Son Jesus, John’s Gospel reminds us, the living bread that came down from heaven. Word made flesh in the Incarnation, Jesus gives his flesh for the life of the world, true food and true drink. This gift, which we remember into each Eucharist, invites us into life in him, invites us to participate in the life he offers us. We receive him into ourselves that we might live in him and he in us, and we in God. Frustrated with their failure to live as one body, Paul challenges the Corinthians, asking, The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? If it isn’t, it should be! The Corinthians struggle (as, so often, do we) because fear tells them they need to remain in control, but union with Christ is only possible when we recognize that we, though many, are one body, one body in Christ.
In the desert, to thirst and to hunger is to know what it means to be human and to hunger and thirst for God, desiring encounter. Intimacy with God is elusive, and yet to follow God’s commands is to enter into life with him, to enter into that intimacy that we – and God – so ardently desire. Eucharist is our extraordinary opportunity to gather, to know that intimacy, to be one in him, that he might be one in us. God created us to thirst and hunger for him; in communion, we take Christ into ourselves, that we might be transformed. What more extraordinary way might God show his love for our world than this?
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
Divine love is ecstatic and communicative.
--Dr. Wendy Wright,
Heart Speaks to Heart:
The Salesian Tradition
The truth is, even the most introverted among us long for companionship. We are not made for isolation. Deep down, we know we are only fully ourselves when we are in relationship to others. If we reflect on the happiest moments of our lives, most will involve moments spent with friends and family. Despite living in an age of heightened individualism, something within us insists that we are not islands.
And this longing for relationship reflects something even truer of God. At the very heart of God’s nature is not isolation, but communion. God is not a solitary being; He is a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in a perfect, eternal relationship of love. This divine community is not closed or exclusive, it is radically open. The love shared between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit overflows and reaches out to include us. Jesus speaks intimately of His Father and of the coming of the Holy Spirit. He reveals that God’s deepest desire is not distance but closeness, not detachment but union.
This sacred mystery is captured in our painted panel by Laurent Girardin, created around 1460 in Lyon, France. The painting depicts the Holy Trinity in a striking composition: God the Father, wearing a papal tiara and a richly embroidered cope of crimson velvet adorned with gold pomegranate patterns, supports the crucified Christ, His Son, with the Holy Spirit hovering above as a dove. The grandeur of the Father’s vestments, paired with the profound suffering of the Son, creates a tension between majesty and sacrifice. Surrounding them are radiant cherubim. This artwork invites us not just to look upon a theological truth, but to stand in awe of a divine relationship: a communion of love that calls us not into isolation, but into the very heart of God Himself.
--Fr. Patrick van der Vorst
Image & quotation source 2: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-16-12-15-2025/
Quotation source 1
