HE LIVES RIGHT HERE IN
OUR MIDST
I read recently a
story about a priest, Father Frank Ramsberger, who was touring the Holy Land. He especially wanted to study the places where
Jesus lived, worked, suffered, died and rose from the dead. He became good
friends with a young boy named Josef, the brown-faced son of an Arab shepherd.
The young boy served at Mass with Father and taught him some of the difficult
Arabic words.
As the priest was
about to leave for other parts of the Holy Land,
he told Josef, "Not many boys and girls have the privilege of living in
the land where Jesus lived. You know that God's Son, as a Boy and as a Man,
walked these roads and breathed this air. Doesn't that help you to love Him
more?"
Josef gave this
very thoughtful answer, "You don't have to live here to love our Lord,
because now He lives in every part of the world. Every land now is the Holy Land. Wherever we are, we are in the land of Jesus." Did you ever think of this Eastern Washington
Church is part of the Holy Land? Jesus lives right here, right now.
This is our thought
on this Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Today, we recall
that Holy Thursday when Jesus first spoke the words, "This is My
Body...This is My Blood." This weekend, we celebrate the fact that these
words are repeated all over the world every day and that Jesus is present on
altars all over the world. Christ lives here - this is the Holy
Land. Spokane is the Holy Land!
Jesus is born right
here in every Mass - this is Bethlehem.
This is Nazareth;
Jesus grows up right here in our lives. Jesus works miracles right here,
spiritual miracles. He heals us of our sin; He heals spiritual cripples so they
can walk in His way; He gives sight to those who cannot see the things of the
Spirit. Christ forgives sin through the sacrament of reconciliation and when
one is true in the heart.
Most importantly,
this chapel is the large "Upper Room" of this Sunday's Good News,
where Jesus spoke the words of consecration for the first time. No land could
be holier than this!
Yes, you and I are
actually living in the Holy Land, because God
lives right here in our midst. The Body of Christ is with us always!
Deacon John
Ruscheinsky