In Eucharist We Meet A God Who Wants To Touch Us

Although Christ is present in in Scripture, in prayer, symbols, and rituals,  Ron Rolheiser tells us Christ is most present in the Eucharist -- a presence we can touch and feel, a presence that lives within our body.   In an article in the Catholic Herald, Rolheiser reminds us that "in the Eucharist, Christ touches us, intimately, physically, sensually, carnally.  Euchharist is physical, not spiritual:  its embrace real, as physical as the incarnation itself. "

Similarly in a reflection on the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time at St. Louis University, Rolheiser tells a beautiful story about Brenda Person who wrote a book of essays entitled, Nature and Other Mothers.  Her first essay in the book is entitled "In Praise of Skin", she tells about a skin condition which was not being cured by multiple visits to numerous physicians.  One day her grandmother saw the rash and told her immediately that her "Skin needs to be touched" and began to give her regular skin massages and, of course, Brenda was healed of her condition."  Rolheiser says "God knows that better than anyone.  It's why Jesus gave us the Eucharist.  In the Eucharist skin gets touched.  The Eucharist isn't abstract, a theological instruction, a creed  a moral precept, a philosophy, or even just an intimate word.  It's bodily, an embrace, a kiss, something shockingly physical, the real presence in a deeper way than even the old metaphysics imagined. ..Skin heals when touched--that's why there's a Eucharist. " 

Is that perhaps why it is so much more fulfilling for us to receive Eucharist in our hand rather than our tongue.  The sensual experience of holding the body and blood of our God makes God's presence real in our lives.  It calls us to a tenderness that knows deep within our God desires to be one with us in every way possible.

In a book published after Nouwen's death entitled  Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit (2010, Kindle Locations 1692-1697,  HarperCollins. Kindle Edition) Nouwen is even more forceful about God's desire to be fully present to us in Eucharist.    Henri Nouwen  says "Jesus never said:  "Munch and sip" the bread and wine.  He said, "Eat me up, drink me empty, take it all in.  Don't hold back.  I want you to become part of me.  I don't want to be separate anymore.  I want to live within you, so that when you eat and drink, I disappear because I am within you.  I want to make my home in you, and invite you to make your home in me."

Reading John 6:53-68 in the Message Translation (Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson) the phrasing is rather explicit in Jesus' response to those who questioned the concept of "Eating his Body and His Blood.  :

But Jesus didn’t give an inch. “Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.”

How sad that we often grew up so focused on doctrine that we failed to let our hearts and our bodies know deeply the GOOD NEWS of Eucharist.  May your heart be nourished by this beautiful sensual gift of God and May you remember we have a God who wants to be present to us "Skin-to-Skin".  God certainly touches us through one another but no time more closely than in this beautiful gift of Eucharist.

Be yourself, everyone else is already taken

I saw this Oscar Wilde quote and it made me realize how often we try to be someone other than ourselves.  We think everyone else looks good in a bathing suit or everyone is funnier than we are, or perhaps that people only love us because we have talents that they need.  Many are  afraid to be themselves because they are afraid they  wouldn't be liked.  Some, in their past, found love was conditional, given  only  if we were good or didn’t cause any trouble.  Some never felt good enough because those they loved never affirmed them.  And so we build a wall around ourselves in order to protect ourselves.   But the call for us is to take the journey deep into ourselves and recognize the beauty that is there.  

Here is a poem by Mary Oliver that helps me remember the really journey of my life....Happy journeying!

The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice-
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations, though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
but little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.

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Gratitude

Today on YouTube I saw this picture and it speaks to me about gratitude.  It was an adopted dog and his rescuer.  The story really focused on the expression on the dog's face that clearly says it all but I also thought the expression on the woman's face also spoke about gratitude.

It is always amazing to me how transforming gratitude is in my life and how very often it changes my perspective almost immediately.  So today, I am praying that each of you have hearts filled with gratitude and friends who remind you often how grateful they are that you are in their lives.  This dog perhaps reminds us to say thanks to our friends.

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” 

― Marcel Proust

Although Emerson's original poem (Hamatreya) mocks our possessiveness of the earth this line tickles my heart to no end.  Today is a beautiful Spring Day with sunshine and flowers everywhere so it was easy to reflect on the beauty all around.   The flowers  on the picture were planted by our groundsmen in front of our motherhouse and whenever I walk in and out of the door I smile and think "Earth laughs in flowers".  In Spring there are flowers everywhere so there are many laughs occurring everywhere I look today.  Yes, there is pain and loneliness but today in this moment life gives me good things and I accept them with joy.  May good things be with you today and may your heart be able to laugh with the earth as you look at the flowers which gift our Springtime.

Spring comes without and within us

Our eyes feast on the beauty around
and smiles delight our hearts
with all the goodness we see.
It's hard to be sad in the spring time
because God hides in every seed
and peeks out when we least expect
to surprise us with color and beauty and love.
Take time to delight in beauty
because all that is without
is also within.
God hides in every seed
and that means even in you and me.
Let yourself blossom.
Take time to delight
and feast on the beauty
within and without.
Take time to laugh with the earth
but since you are of the earth
know also that
your heart laughs flowers too.