Matthew under the arm 125

Down in a valley this morning, that lay below the rough cart track that we seemed to have been on for days, there lay a village. Smoke crept stealthily into the early morning sky. Columba ate some dried fruit that our hosts gave us yesterday evening. He sat on the damp grass and gazed on the little house. After half and hour, he stood up and immediately set off down the fields, with me scampering afterwards. (His walking step was huge and long...) On entering the village, a little chapel snug among the cottages, revealed itself. The door was open with flickering candle-light within. Old women, children and bored looking men lurked in the shadows, waiting. The priest entered. There was his muttering. But then, as if something had woken him, he said slowly 'This is my body'. He raised his arms with bread between his fingers. Columba looked at me and smiled. We knew what we were saying to each other. Christ walks with us. He is here! I knew then that this was why Columba always held to the old fathers' insistance on the daily Eucharist. 'Give us this day our dailybread'.

Matthew 26:26-29….
In the heart and mind of the Gospel writer is the immanent death of Jesus. A meal, ordinary though it would seem from the description, was and is of ultimate significance – Christ, Messiah, Son of Man – the revelation of God – is in the bread and wine. From this eating and drinking would follow Christ’s death. This too becomes part of us. And so, in the food of God and the 'death' of God there is the route to the activity of the Kingdom.

In the presence of Your Body and Blood, I would know the mystery of Your Life and Your Death.

The Eucharist is not simply an act of remembering, it is recollecting – a bringing into the present the Christ of the Gospel. It is also an enactment of the feast of the Kingdom which is to come. Heaven and earth truly touch in the Eucharist. All prayer emanates from this enacted recollection. You are called to honour this by your regular receiving of Christ’s Body and Blood – to meditate, when you can, before the Blessed Sacrament. From this discipline, you are called to see Christ’s Body around you, that you may serve and love wherever and in whoever you see that Body.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles