My Beloved, You have so much to say to me in today's Mass readings and Gospel passage. The message is so spectacularly clear. You invite me to the banquet of Your Body and Blood. "Come eat and drink of the bread and wine I have prepared." Why is it so important? The whole purpose of the incarnation was that You would enable me to have all the means necessary to equip me for my life's journey. For you have said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." You are my sustenance when I eat Your flesh and drink Your blood. If I fail to do so then You say very clearly that not only can I not participate in the Divine life - the life of the Trinity and not only will I die - I will be dead eternally. "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day;" But if I partake of Your Body and Blood then I have life - life that will sustain and strengthen. The very life of God that enables me to meet every challenge. "for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ The life that will enable me to live as St. Paul advises in today's reading. Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without grace and without the Eucharist I would find it impossible to please God. My life would fall flat. Every fear and anxiety would prey on me, depress me and lead me to despair. But because I am loved and God knows how much I need Him, He made provision for me to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood in order that I may have life in abundance here on earth and life everlasting with Him in Heaven. Praise the Lord!!!!
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