Mystically and Mysteriously Close

During my time back in the States, I went to Sunday mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus at Notre Dame. In the shadow of the choir loft full of my favorite liturgical choir on earth, in the basilica where I had been to so many beautiful and nourishing liturgies (from weddings to memorial masses, Tenebrae to Ordinations), I went up to receive the Body of Christ with my brothers and sisters who, with me, are the Body of Christ. And as I moved forward to reach out and receive the Risen Lord, I thought to myself, "This is exactly how I can be so far away and so close."

It started as a question, a reflection growing out of a beautiful mysticality in our Eucharist that has been popularized and articulated in a nice phrase by sacred-musician Danielle Rose: she says, "See you in the Eucharist." I first heard it in earnest from friends I met and grew close with on Catholics on Call in summer 2010. After we went home on Friday and texted over the weekend, one friend reassured the rest of us with the consolation that we'd be together in the Eucharist.

This warm outreach in faithful friendship manifested the beautiful ties we can know as faithful Catholics in our Eucharist. Jesus comes to us, transforming the bread and wine on our altar tables into His Body and Blood. His outreach comes to us as the pure Love that is God. Our God is above time and reaches all parts of time and space and beyond. The bond we know in Him through His Son Jesus Christ diffuses through our lives when embrace a rhythm of Eucharist. When we work to come to God and prayer in the Eucharist, we learn in our hearts how we can be nourished by being taken, blessed, broken, and shared by Christ and in Christ. Living a Eucharistic life gives us thorough, holistic consolation that upholds the hours and days of our lives in great light.

So as I've navigated the waters of a year abroad, living and serving in Ireland, the challenges of being far away from my parents, brothers, girlfriend, and dear friends are mitigated - or even baptized - by the strength of a Eucharistic life. Going to daily mass almost every day and 2 or 3 or more masses each weekend can sometimes leave me a bit "massed out," but the way that the Mass is weaved into the fabric of my life has entrenched the consolation that the bonds of the Body of Christ provide. How can I be so far away yet, even if not feel exactly close to my near and dear ones, not feel not so far away? The mystical bond with my loved ones through our shared belief and being within the embrace of the Body of Christ.