“But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart” (Deuteronomy 30:14)
Sunday’s first reading foreshadows the Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ: he comes very near to us, in our mouths and hearts in Holy Communion. As the Word of God in the Old Testament was not “in heaven” or “beyond the sea”, so Jesus came down from heaven, and walked over the sea, to be close to us and then stay with us in the Blessed Sacrament.
He has the power to enter his own creation, “for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16). Jesus is God who made all things, and so he can change bread and wine into his Body and Blood. His real presence there is invisible, but real — as real as the other invisible things he has made, such as our souls and all the angels.
