+ Our “Alleluia Verse” today summarizes the theme for the day! Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us;
make our hearts burn while you speak to us! It is easy to know if
we have “connected with” the Risen Lord Jesus as he wants us to connect with
him: if our hearts “burn within us” with
a warm glow and a peace and a joy that cannot be gotten anywhere else – a
glow and peace and joy – that reaches down to the very depths of our souls – a
glow that produces hope! This
“connecting” – this “communing” – can happen at this and every Mass: if we are
open to it, consider it a real possibility, and welcome it when it begins to
happen!
Our
gospel passage today, in a sense, outlines the format of the Mass
for us: Jesus comes and walks with us as
we listen to his [very own] words in
the Scriptures and the homily; then, he comes into the inner recesses of the
“houses of our hearts and souls” and breaks bread with us, as we partake of the
Holy Communion that is his very real, substantial and living Risen Person. The
sacred silence that occurs at the
moment of reception (and in brief moments thereafter) cries out: Here is your God! Here is your King! Here
is your HOPE!
If there is some kind of glow
and peace and joy – when all of this happens: then we have brought what we
needed to bring to the Mass: our faith
and our love; and we now can bask and
abide in the magnificent presence of the Risen Jesus for the rest of the
day; until the next time, we either pray, or come to Mass!
Once
we “get” the dynamic that is going on here, more and more clearly,
then we can be witness of it to others – we can tell others about it – who we
can see to be wandering around aimlessly and sadly; and then the more we can all celebrate the astounding “Easter
fact” that our spiritual necks have been
“ransomed” not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as
of a spotless unblemished lamb! And it is all found in the thunderous
silence of sacredness moment of moment in time!
Let us return to that moment
of reception of Holy Communion often during the day! It is the great summation,
it is the great promise, it is the greatest of joys!
What
a price, and what great love that
comes to us from Christ Jesus our Risen Lord and Brother.
Lord God, continue
to show all of us, each and every day
of our lives, the true “path of life”
that will lead to a face-to-face encounter with you and your Son!
Amen! Alleluia!
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