When we gather in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord we are being made into the family that St. Paul described in his letter to the Ephesians: Christ lives in our hearts through faith, and as we come to the source of all love, we can glimpse the wonder, the depth and the height of a love which is given to us completely in this Eucharist. God’s power is doing infinitely more than we can ever ask or imagine, and we have become part of that great company of witnesses, the great river of history as Pope John Paul calls it, which began at the moment of God’s creation and flows back to him, the source of all goodness and love.

St. Paul wanted the Ephesians to be apostles of the truth. His invitation was the same as the one Jesus taught in the parable of the Sower. You recall how the Sower sowed on rocky soil and among thorns. These were the difficulties that every Christian must face. Sometimes it is an inability to persevere when the going gets difficult. At other times there are too many distractions which choke our growth in holiness just like the thorns impede the growth of wheat. Sometimes the seed falls on good soil: it is then that the Word produces a harvest of goodness and peace. Jesus, the Word of God, is still sowing the seed of the gospel today, and he asks us to join him in the great task of bringing God’s light and Truth to all whom we meet. The Sower invites us to be other Christs by fulfilling our duties conscientiously by making our daily lives and work signs of God’s power working in us. If we look around, if we take a look at the world, which we love because it is God’s handiwork, we will find that the parable holds true. The word of Jesus Christ is fruitful, it has the power to fascinate and inspire many people to greater fidelity to his commandments. The life and conduct of those who serve God have changed history. Even many of those who do not know our Lord are motivated, perhaps unconsciously, by ideals which derive from Christianity. The ideals of peace, reconciliation and genuine care for one’s neighbour challenge us to live as God’s people, his Church. Our food for this great work is the Eucharist, the very body and blood of our Saviour.

Jesus is here with us, he has made us a part of himself. St Paul taught us that we are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Jesus our God has not left us. He is here to nourish and sustain us, to forgive and heal us, to renew and strengthen us. He wants to be close to us. Indeed, he wants to be as important to us as the food and drink we need every day. When Jesus broke bread with his disciples on the night before he died, he was leaving us an eternal covenant which will never pass away. We live in a new time, and our song is of joy and hope: The rising day dispels the night, the shadows of doubt give way to the light of truth (St. Augustine).

This miracle of love invites us to pray and ponder the truth about our whole existence. Jesus, the first Son of the Eternal father, offers us himself as food for this life and for the life to come. It is at the altar that eternal life begins :

For those who are nourished by Christ will die the earthly death of time, but they will live eternally because Christ is life everlasting, (St. Augustine, On John)

This is the Good News of our faith. It is news because it speaks to us of a deep love which we could never have imagined. It is good because there is nothing better than uniting ourselves to God, the Father of all goodness, from whom every family takes its name.To live as a Christian apart from the Eucharist, is to make our progress a very difficult journey. All of us know that the best moments in our families’ lives are when we are joined together in the company of a meal or in some other common project. There is a sense of belonging that is nearly impossible to convey to someone who is outside of the family circle. Those who provide the food and those who are fed by it become part of a greater thing than just a simple meal. All the ties of love and relationship come together and become a bond that is difficult to break. I suppose the way we understand this bond best is when it is broken through the absence of a loved one.

It is the same with the Eucharist, the great meal of all God’s children. Each celebration of the Eucharist is impoverished whenever one of God’s children is absent.

At each Mass we pray with Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit to the one great God who is Father of us all. Mary, the Mother of the Body of Christ is present as are the saints and those who have gone before us. When we pray for the other members of the Church, the Pope, the Bishop, and so on, we are saying that they are also part of our community, which is, in turn, a symbol of the whole Body of Christ we call the Church.

The Second Vatican Council taught us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of all Christian life and activity. In other words, everything about us as faithful believers finds its beginning and its final purpose in this great sacrament. To return to the parable of the Sower. There can be no harvest if we are not ready for constant, generous work, which can be long and tiring: ploughing the land, sowing the seed, weeding the fields, gathering the grain..The kingdom of God is fashioned in history, in time. Our Lord has entrusted this task to us, and no Christian is exempt. Each of us has a part to play. As we gather in prayer before Christ in the Eucharist let us remember that the time has not yet come for resting. The work continues and there is much to be done. The life of the Church is expressed in the vitality of communities such as this. If we are to produce fruit, we must be like the grain of wheat which Jesus said must die before it bears much fruit. This was the way of Jesus, the way of his cross. The Lord challenges each of us to take up the cross every day and follow him. The way of the cross is the way of true love. Each of us knows that to grow individually and as a family, we must be prepared to make sacrifices. We must have a big heart and share the concerns of those who are precious to us. We must be able to forgive and understand. We must serve as Jesus did, not counting the cost. If we love in this way we will remove the obstacles which prevent us growing into the image of Christ. It is only when we are planted in love and built on love that we will experience the height and the depth of God’s love as revealed to us in Christ.

Our Christian lives are also fed by prayer and reflection. There can be no genuine conversion if we do not spend time with our Lord and hear him speak the same words of encouragement which he spoke while he was on earth. The Eucharist is always present in our churches not only for communion to the sick, but as a source of strength for each of us. St. John’s parish has had, for the last number of years, a profoundly Eucharistic spirit. The adoration chapel and more recently the chapel at Eastland, have been places of constant prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The value of this constant stream of petition and praise cannot be overestimated. It is not only a sign of your willingness to be a community that finds its strength in the Eucharist, but also a community who understands its role as part of the priestly people of God. Like Christ, our High Priest, you are also offering your prayer to the Father not only for your own good, but also for the good of the whole Church. For this generous gift the whole Church is grateful, and I ask your continued prayers for the Archdiocese so that together we might become the people God wants us to be.

Jesus gave us the Eucharist because he wants us to approach him. He wants to nourish us so that we become a single living being with him. When he said : Apart from me you can do nothing, He was telling us that he wants to be totally available to us. Whenever we gather at the altar for the holy sacrifice of the mass and when we contemplate the mystery of his presence in the Sacrament of the Altar we are brought to life as his holy people. God speaks to us as a tender father in the Eucharist: Here is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him. Here God gives us a certain promise of his presence and power which supports us and the whole world. Here the human family is made one with the family of heaven. Here we find God our Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the one and only God. It was H. G. Wells, an atheist of strong conviction who once said that if Catholics really believed what they say about the Eucharist, they would only dare come up the aisles of their churches on their knees.

God our Father does not want us to be fearful in his presence. He wants us to approach with the joy and simplicity of a child reaching to its mother. How I have longed, he said to the prophet Hosea, to hold you to my cheek, and to lead you with leading strings of love. Let us then approach this wonderful Sacrament with joy and thanksgiving. Let us commit to the heart of Jesus all our concerns and problems. Let us rest in this living, loving presence of God and praise him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:21)