CHRISTMAS AND THE EUCHARIST

Let me suggest why people make so many happy visits during Christmas. God was the first to have made a visit on Christmas day. He visited us, His beloved creatures. His visit was such that He took upon Himself our fallen nature and appeared as one like us in all things, but sin.

However, God was not content with a passing visit. He stayed with us. Christmas is Jesus coming to us. The Eucharist is Jesus staying with us.

While God was the first to have made a visit on Christmas, Mary was the first to have welcomed Him. And with God in her womb, Mary went in haste to make her Christmas visit. The Gospel today paints for us that beautiful visit of the Blessed Mother to her cousin, Elizabeth. She, too, was not satisfied with a momentary visit. She stayed with Elizabeth about three months, attending to her cousin’s maternity needs, before she went home. Mary, with Jesus in her womb, is like Jesus in the Eucharist. She came, she stayed, and she served.

The same thing should happen as we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Our visits should be visits that bring Jesus to the people we visit. Then our visits become Eucharistic as we linger to attend to the needs of the people we go to. When this happens, we ourselves become Eucharistic. If Christmas is Jesus coming to us while the Eucharist is Jesus staying with us, Christmas is receiving Jesus while the Eucharist is becoming like Jesus to others. It is not a choice between the two; rather one should flow to the other. Christmas has its fullest meaning in the Eucharist.

Welcoming Jesus in Bethlehem must necessarily lead us to bringing Jesus everywhere.

God has visited us. We surely owe Him a visit. The church is His house; we can always find Him there. But His favorite address is the least of our brethren; we always have them with us.

God stays with us. He truly is Emmanuel, God-With-Us. The Eucharist is His real presence. But we, who receive Him in the Eucharist, are likewise His Body.

We are His presence, too.

Christmas is Jesus being born to us. The Eucharist is us becoming Jesus to others. Fr. Bobby T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Christmas is Jesus coming to us while the Eucharist is Jesus staying with us.

Jesus, You are truly Emmanuel, “God-with-us”. While we remember annually Your birth on Christmas Day, we celebrate Your presence in our midst up until today through the Holy Eucharist. As we receive You in the Holy Eucharist, transform us and make us Your loving presence to others who either visit us or are visited by us. We pray, maranatha, come, Lord Jesus! We pray, make us become more and more like You. Amen.