What Does the Gospel Say About the Eucharist?

What does the Gospel, which is simply Old English for “Good News,” say about the Eucharist? Quite a bit, it turns out. In fact, one of the important realities that the Gospel proclaims is the good news of the Eucharist.

At one of the most critical moments in Jesus’ life, in the few hours before he was to begin his passion which was to lead to his saving death, he had one last meal with his disciples, the sacred Passover meal of the Jews.

The Passover meal commemorated the deliverance from slavery of the Jewish people, who labored in Egypt and who were led out by Moses. As the angel of death passed over the land to kill all the firstborn, only the homes of the Israelites, who had marked their doorposts with the blood of a lamb, were spared the punishment of death. The Fathers of the Church understood the Passover meal and the Passover event itself as a type of what was to reach its fulfillment in Jesus. Just before Jesus offered his life as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death (the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by the shedding of his blood), he instituted a new sacred meal – a meal derived from the Passover, but a sacred meal of the new covenant – to commemorate what he was about to do:

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Why Women Cry…

A little boy asked his mother, “Why are you crying?”

“Because I’m a woman,” she told him.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

His mom just hugged him and said, “And you never will.”

Later the little boy asked his father, “Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?”

“All women cry for no reason,” was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, “God, why do women cry so easily?”

God said: “When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining. I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all
circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly. I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed.”

“You see my son,” said God, “the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart – the place where love resides.”

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Acres of Diamonds

A century ago, Russell Conwell traveled the United States with a speech he called, “Acres of Diamonds.” He told of a young man who studied at Yale to become a mining engineer. Upon graduation, “gold fever” struck him and he set off to California to seek his fortune.

Yale had offered him a position as an instructor, which he turned down. He persuaded his mother to sell their Massachusetts farm and accompany him. But the trip was futile as he found no gold and eventually accepted a job in Minnesota working for a mining company – at a lower salary than he would have received at Yale.

More interesting is that the man who bought the family farm from the widowed mother was harvesting potatoes one day. As he slid a heavy bushel through an opening in the stone wall, he noticed a shiny stone. He had it assayed and learned it was native silver. The farm was sitting on a fortune in silver!

Why had the mining engineer, who had undoubtedly passed by that same rock and others like it hundreds of times, not discovered the ore? Could it be that he never dreamed a treasure could be found so easily? Was it because he believed that one must go elsewhere to fulfill a dream?

What we are seeking may be found right where we are! There are certainly times to make life changes, but sometimes we must simply change our thinking. What you seek (happiness, security, fulfillment, challenge) may be at your fingertips, though yet unseen.

There may be hidden potential in your present job, your current relationships or the location in which you live. The answers to your dreams may be found at your fingertips if you only believe it is possible. Before making that big life change, look carefully around. You may be sitting on acres of diamonds!

>From ONE MINUTE CAN CHANGE A LIFE, by Steve Goodier

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