In Him and with Him and through Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, forever and ever.  These words conclude the Eucharistic prayer at every Mass.  We respond in agreement with “Amen”!

Because this concluding prayer is so familiar, it had to be a moment of grace recently that those words hit me like a ton of bricks.  I choked up as I considered that it is only through Jesus that we’re able to glorify God, our Father.  United with Him in the Eucharist we’re lifted up to our Almighty Father to give Him the highest glory.  It is only in Jesus we’re able to give the Father glory befitting our God. 

 Jesus was born to do the Father’s will.  He defined the Father’s ultimate will as:   For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life… (John 6:40)    Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist is to be a testimony of belief in Him, in all that He taught, especially in His real presence, and faith that it is Jesus who, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life that the Father wills for us. 

God’s will is reflected in Christ’s teaching on the Eucharist:  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  (John 6:53-55)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:  The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. (CCC 1324)   The Eucharist is the food and lifeblood of our souls.  Jesus transfigures us when we center on Him and receive Him in the Eucharist.  He infuses Himself into every cell of our being, body and soul, to move us, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to be the people God created us to be in our everyday lives.  That is:  a reflection of His Son.  

We have no clue of what life is until we embrace the reality of receiving the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  Jesus brings us Heaven on Earth.  He makes God’s will of eternal life obtainable for us.  Jesus provides Himself to us as the truest form of life for the glory and honor of God our almighty Father forever and ever.  Amen.