Daily Devotional for March 10

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March 10                                                          John 6:52-59

        On the Christian Eucharist

Today's passage centers on the Christian Eucharist. Jesus uses
ordinary things in the Eucharist, ordinary bread and fruit of
the vine. But by faith, they become Christ's body and blood.
This spiritual transformation illustrates another transformation
which happens when we receive the Eucharist: God con-
secrates ordinary, mundane daily lives. As the bread and wine
become a means of grace for us at the Eucharist, so our
ordinary lives become the focus of God's grace in this world.

The Eucharist, then, is a meeting between heaven and earth
in which the eternal, invisible sphere and the temporal world
join together. We experience our complete dependence on
God and God's abiding faithfulness to us. We can be com-
pletely who we are; we can be vulnerable.

There is, then, a sacredness in the meal itself. Jesus promises
eternal life and resurrection to the one who participates. This
is available to each of us by faith. In experiencing this eternal
life in the Eucharist, we need not experience anything but the
present moment. In the words of theologian Paul Tillich, it
is a moment of grace:

     ...at that moment a wave of light breaks into our
     darkness and it is as though a voice were saying,
     "You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater
     than you, and the name of which you do not know.
     Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find
     it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later
     you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not
     perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply
     accept the fact that you are accepted."  If that
     happens to us, we experience grace.¹

  Thought for today: In the Eucharist I experience eternal
           life simply by abiding in the present moment.

¹From THE NEW BEING by Paul Tillich. Copyright 1955 Paul Tillich; copyright
renewed @ 1983 Hannah Tillich. Reprinted with permission of Charles Scribner's
Sons, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Company.

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From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.