The kids and I came back from celebrating Our Lady's Assumption at Mass a few minutes ago, and I had to share a thought that passed through my mind after receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. I was thinking about the way Jesus shared the glory of His resurrection with Mary when I remembered these words from John Paul II's encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia:
Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54). This pledge of the future resurrection comes from the fact that the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food, is His body in its glorious state after the resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the “secret” of the resurrection. ”
Mary is the first member of the Church to experience the full unfolding of Jesus' resurrected life within her, but the Lord intends it for every one of us who receives Him as the Bread of Life! No matter what condition our bodies are in at the moment, how much pain or illness they carry, we have already received the Seed that will renew our bodies and introduce us into the life of glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment