On the journey of our lives, none of us know exactly what is ahead or even how much longer we have to live. For some, the coming days will be dreary and painful because of an illness. Others are in for a period of emptiness and adjustment following the death of a loved one. Maybe others are facing anxiety over challenging financial issues. Some are enjoying excitement because of an upcoming wedding, the birth of a new baby, moving into a new house or starting a new job. Perhaps days of peace are in order because a difficult problem has been solved, months of confusion have given way to clarity, or an apparently failed relationship has been reconciled.
We do not know what is ahead for us in the world either. As North Korea continues to test missiles we are reminded that nuclear annihilation of the planet is still a possibility. Continuing terrorist attacks around the globe chip away at our sense of security in the world. The Paris Climate Accord reminds us that no matter what we might think of global warming and its consequences, 21st century technology and very real environmental concerns prompt us, as Pope Francis has said, to include care for the earth as a moral imperative. Witnessing how human beings come to the aid of each other in times of tragedy or experiencing the good will of the people we know in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces and churches, we allow ourselves to imgaine that a world of peace is possible.
The good news we celebrate on the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is that we have food for the journey ahead. Not the amazing manna that got the Israelites through a forty-year journey across a wicked desert (Deuteronomy 8:2-16). We have the even more amazing food of Jesus Christ himself, the food we know as Eucharist. This is the food that is life for the world (John 6:51-58). This is the food that makes us one, the food that can unite us in our attitudes and efforts to transform the world with the love of Christ. Amid all that is going on in our lives and our world, how wonderful to know that the Body and Blood of Jesus we receive in the Eucharist really is life for the world.
Together in faith,
Very Rev. Christopher Smith, Rector