Let us have a pretaste of heaven in our church itself.

Let us have a pretaste of heaven in our church itself.
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Some people really live with us. We can touch and feel them.

Some people live in our memory, not really.

Those dear ones of ours who are dead belong to the second category.

What about Jesus, who lived and died for us?

Is He in our memory alone or is He really with us?

Jesus is God.

Any logic that applies to created ones cannot be applied to God.

As far as human beings are concerned, a dead person cannot be with us really ; he can be only in our memory.

But, we cannot apply this statement to Jesus, because He is God and man.

As God He cannot die.

He died only in His human nature.

He rose again to life on the third day of His death.

So, even as a man He is living.

Jesus is the only religious leader who is still alive.

As God He is everywhere.

As man He is alive,  with His body and soul, in the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus' presence  in the Holy Eucharist is real.

Holy Eucharist is in the church

not merely to be exhibited, but

to be received by us

on our tongue

as our spiritual food.

When the consecrated host is on our tongue,  Jesus is really present there.

When we consume the host,

we become equal to our Mother Mary

who had the very same Jesus,

whom we have now,

in her womb.

How blessed are we when we receive Holy Communion!

Why did Jesus choose Eucharistic real presence?

Before His ascension Jesus promised His Apostles to be with them till the end of the world.

"And behold I am with you all through the days that are coming, until the consummation of the world."(Matthew. 28:20)

Jesus keeps His promise by being with us through His Eucharistic presence.

Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Eucharist for two purposes :

1. To be our spiritual food.

2. To be always with us.

Jesus said,

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 

If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world."

These words have a literal meaning,

that is, 

Jesus is going to give His real  flesh and real blood as our food.

There is no metaphor in it.

Those who heard His words meant them literally and

therefore they disputed among themselves, saying

How can this man give us his flesh to eat? "

Then Jesus said to them:

" Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. 

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. 

For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. 

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me: and I in him."

Some disciples could not believe Jesus' words.

"Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard; and who can hear it? 

After this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him."

If His words were symbolic, He would have stopped them saying that  they were so.

But He meant what He said.

"Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? 

And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. 

And we have believed and have known that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. "

The above Gospel verses  prove that

what we receive during Holy Communion

is really the flesh and blood of Jesus,

which means that

Jesus is really present in the Holy Eucharist with His own flesh and blood.

It is for the purpose of feeding us with His own flesh and blood

He gave His Apostles and their descendants

the power to turn bread and wine into

His body and blood.

This is a supernatural power which can be given by God alone.

The second  purpose of the sacrament of Eucharist is to be always with us.

He is waiting for us in the tabernacle to be visited as often as we can.

Jesus is really living with us by His real presence in the Eucharist.

By presenting ourselves before Him and meditating on His real presence,

we can have a pretaste of heaven, where we will meat Him face to face.

Let us have a pretaste of heaven in our church itself.

Lourdu Selvam.