Holy Thursday - A Night of Great Beauty

I am a very lucky man.  I am a member of the Roman Catholic Church, I am proud to be a member of the Church that Christ built from the beginning.  I am very lucky because on this very night, I received the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  Receiving The Eucharist is as close to heaven that you can get this side of death.  Just think of it; Jesus loved us so very much that He wanted to be with us until he returned again. He chose simple bread and wine to be the vehicle to do this.  Some say; "How can you say God is in that piece of bread?  How can you call ordinary wine His Blood?"  Others say; "You Catholics got it all wrong. It is just a memorial of his life and death."  Oh yeah?  I call Jesus the Christ to the stand.

Q:"Jesus, what do you say about the Eucharist?"

A: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

Q What Else can you tell us about your Body and Blood?

A:I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that Iwill give is my flesh for the life of the world."

Q: Jesus how can you give us your flesh to eat?

A: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats  my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

Q: Do you mean that it is just a symbol, the meal is a memorial?
A: For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

There are many in the world today who say, how can God do such a thing? They say that they don't belive that God could be contained in bread and wine.  These very same people believe in the unlikely prospect that Jesus was born in a stable, in a manger and that he washed feet and was beaten and crucified and raised on the third day.

It is unfortunate that some well meaning believers believe in a God that is too small. In spite of the fact that God has always come in the meek things of the earth, in the Garden of Eden as one friend visiting another. In the silence that passed by Moses.  I believe in a God that allowed himself to be born in humble circumstances, who for the majority of his earthly life works as a simple carpenter, never actually had a place of His own after he started His mission.  He felt pain and weariness and he worked hard in the carpenter shop, with sweat pouring down as if he was just an ordinary man. He chose ordinary men to carry his message, they were not brilliant, educated men, but simple men.  He then allowed himself to be crucified and experience pain and death.

Yes I believe that God came to me, was inside of me on this day where we celebrated the Last Supper.  I thank God for being so humble and thank him for coming to me.