“Nowhere on earth are we more welcomed or loved than by Jesus in Eucharist”

"The longer you stay away from Communion, the more your soul will become weak, and in the end you will become dangerously indifferent." - St. John Bosco

Gospel text (Lk 24,35-48):
The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way,
and how Jesus was made known to them
in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."

In today’s Gospel, when Jesus comes in his glorified body to where the Apostles are gathered, they think he is a ghost. However, after they realize that this truly is Jesus, they are “incredulous with joy.” Incredulous. Why is it that, so often, we are not incredulous with joy every time we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist?

Without the Resurrection, our faith is invalid. Without the Resurrection, Jesus was simply someone, perhaps a great prophet, who preached very well and worked miracles, but then just died. He was simply a man who had 12 followers who were also martyred for a lie.

The Resurrection is the pinnacle of our faith, where we see why Jesus was born and why he died: to bring life. The fact that Jesus intends to raise us from the dead has mammoth ramifications for us — not only after our deaths, but also in our daily lives. We need no longer be slaves through the fear of death (Heb 2:15). We can live radically free and unselfish lives of love.

Let us pray today that we can see the risen Jesus in everyone we encounter and we may become “incredulous with joy” every time we receive the Eucharist.