The Hospitality of God

My Dear Parishioners,
 
In today’s Gospel Jesus reveals the hospitality of God. Everyone is invited to the divine banquet: what matters is for each of us to foster our relationship with Jesus. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood is not an invitation to cannibalism, as the Jews feared. Instead, in the Eucharist the bread and wine are given a new and deeper meaning: they become the very person of Jesus.
 
In Hebrew, the expression “ flesh and blood” means the whole being. The reality of Christ’s presence at the Eucharist is beyond our comprehension. We are asked not to understand it, but to experience it.
 
“ Abide in me” is a phrase Jesus uses over and over again. He invites us to take him into ourselves and become one with him. Then we will have real life.
 
In the Eucharist we deepen our relationship with Jesus, not mechanically but by becoming more and more like him over the years. We meet God in this mysterious and dramatic way: God gives himself to us, and we try to shape our lives into a loving gift for God. In heaven there will be no Eucharist as we know it, because our bonding with God will then be complete.
 
God bless you,
Father Pawel