Gospel of John 6:54

When I was a kid, I can remember getting a magnifying glass and a piece of paper and focusing the rays of the sun so that by holding it there, it would begin to burn a hole in the paper. It was not that I had taken possession of the rays of the sun but rather that I had pinpointed the rays on the paper for my special purpose. The sun’s radiance was still everywhere present even as I burned the hole.

God is like that. Jesus, the Logos, the Word, is everywhere present in the universe. There is no place where He is not. Still, He chooses to come to us in the mass, the Eucharist, in a focused and intense way under the form of bread and wine. Thus He says what he says in John’s Gospel. When we consume the bread and wine, we are taking Him into ourselves and becoming the very temple in which He tabernacles Himself. Indeed, it is in Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament that the Church seeks to make this mysterious spiritual reality especially vividly. So the Christ who is everywhere is also somewhere. That fact is very consoling.

Christ, however, is focused among us especially in other ways as well. He tells us, for instance, that when two or three are gathered together in His Name, there is He in their midst. He is still everywhere but He is also now especially present in a particular spot. And there is more. Surely He is especially present when His Word is proclaimed. We are moved by an awareness of that reality whenever we hear or read His word.

But perhaps one of the most significant ways He comes to us in a focused way is in the destitute of the world. Remember how He spells it out lest we miss the point. He tells His followers, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” When we perform these loving actions, we are doing so to Christ Himself who is focused in them. Here I am, He tells us. Do you see me? I am not so much in the clouds above as in the midst of the world around you.

Make a difference to the human condition in the world that surrounds you and you will be right where the Lord wants you to be.

God loves you.

Fr. Mike Cassell+
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