“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.
Pope Benedict XVI was once asked by a child making their First Holy Communion why he could not see Jesus. The Pope replied that we can only see some things by their effects, like invisible electricity that makes visible light — and so too with Jesus in the Eucharist, we see him by the effect Holy Communion has on those who receive him: they live like Jesus.
We are called to live like Jesus by loving like the Good Samaritan in the Gospel, showing practical compassion beyond the limits of our convenience and our natural inclinations. But before we can be a Good Samaritan to others, we must let Jesus love us more deeply in Holy Communion, rather than desire to “justify ourselves” (Luke 10:29), like the lawyer he addresses. By our sins, we too are left wounded and naked, in need of the healing grace and nourishment of the sacraments which Jesus has entrusted to his Church. Jesus can command us to love completely because he has loved us completely “by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20), and keeps giving himself to us totally in Holy Communion.
