We have had a month of festivals. The Ascension of the Lord; Pentecost; Trinity Sunday; and today, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It has been four weeks, each one focusing to some degree the immediate after effects of the Resurrection and the conclusion of Jesus’ mission on earth.
Four weeks ago, it was the remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord, when Jesus was taken up to heaven to be at the right hand of the Father. A feast which reminds and urges the believer that life on earth is fleeting and the ultimate desire of every person is to be with God and one another for eternity. Human nature had entered heaven.
The following week, we focused on Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to the Apostles on Pentecost. Something interesting happened on Pentecost, which is somewhat opposite of that which happened on Christmas, a type of a reverse Christmas, if you will. At Christmas, the invisible Word, took on our human flesh through the Incarnation. At Pentecost, the human flesh took on the invisible Holy Spirit as the Apostles became the temples of the Holy Spirit. We too became temples by being baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At Christmas, God takes on the human cause as His own. At Pentecost, we hopefully take on God’s cause as our own.
Last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, we pondered the great mystery of what this cause of God might entail. And we discovered that His cause is simply pure and perfect relationships.
The very essence of God is relationship. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. The pure epitome of relationship.
We saw that it is in our relationships with one another there is a glimpse into the prefect relationship which is God. In the midst of this obscure and ideological concept of the Trinity, we find that the Trinity is anything but obscure and ideological. We find that the Trinity is made evident in the good relationships we forge in life, including our relationship with God.
Today we focus on Christ who is the risen from the dead but remains with us through the gift of his glorified body, blood, soul and divinity through the gift of the Holy Eucharist.
The resurrected Christ comes to us in form of bread and wine, quite ordinary while at the same time, quite extraordinary. God has made his real presence available to every generation. Not only does the Holy Spirit resides in us but also the glorified Son when we receive the Eucharist.
All of these feasts have the same point: The Ascension, Pentecost, an understanding of the Trinity and, the Body and Blood of Jesus are all precursors of what life in heaven will be like. The eternal life we experience in a limited way now, only shows there is a greater reality of God who wishes to intimately share his life with ours for all eternity
Moreover, what our celebrations over the last month have insisted on is that heaven and earth do intersect. The Ascension of the earthly Jesus proves human nature is once again invited into the eternal presence of God.
The Divine Spirit comes down from heaven and wishes to reside in the body of human being who becomes the temples of the Holy Spirit upon baptism.
The Trinity of Persons is made clearer when we enter into proper relationships with God and one another.
The gift of the Holy Eucharist incorporates within us the whole salvation story of Jesus along with the potential of he who raised from the dead, can be our future as well. God never leaves his people and constantly invites us into his life through the gift of his body and blood. Eternal life intersecting with mortal life, soon to be transformed by the power of God.
Quite a month of feasts. All which reminds us of how much God wants to share his goodness in your life, if you let him.