The Inheritance of God

I think it’s okay to say that even after receiving the Eucharist we still want more. Even though Jesus is truly present in Holy Communion, we sometimes imagine we’re the only ones returning to the pews praying embarrassingly, “Thank you, Jesus. But, if I can be entirely honest with You, I’m hoping there’s something more than this.”

It can be an uncomfortable thing to admit. We don’t want to sound irreverent or ungrateful. But it’s also an interesting thing to admit, since it implies that we have in us a desire - perhaps a distant memory - of the “more” for which we long. Could it be a vague recollection of the Light of God’s love that brought us into existence in our mothers’ womb.

Whatever the reason for our wanting more, we definitely do, because the Eucharist, while it is His presence, is nevertheless a veiled presence, and we want to see God’s face. If the Eucharist is a foreshadowing of the heavenly feast to come, we want that feast!

Married couples do well to admit this same dynamic in their relationship, even the most happily married. A spouse may awaken in the other the desire for God, but he or she will never fulfill that desire. It’s the same thing with the Eucharist. It awakens our desire for God, but it does not fulfill that desire. Our heart is longing to see the face of God.

Like the Israelites who ate finally “of the yield of the land of Canaan,” after all those years of eating manna in the desert, we will be even closer to God in heaven than we experience here on earth. If we stay with Christ and His Church in this life, sustained by the unleavened Bread of Life, that is, the Eucharist, then will the longing in our hearts for more be fulfilled.

In the meantime, to receive Jesus in the Eucharist is to receive the inheritance of the Father that is given in heaven to those who have loved God. To think: we are receiving that inheritance now, in this life, and that like the prodigal son, there are times we squander that inheritance, repenting through Confession, saying to the Father, “I’m sorry,” as He receives us back.

But what if we were to be converted (before going too far away), as was the prodigal son, by the fact that God is so merciful as to be giving the inheritance to us now, in this life?

The Eucharist, the Inheritance of God, is certainly the real presence of Christ in our lives, since we know it is given to us by the Father. But if we see it as a Sign - I don’t say symbol, but sign - of God’s merciful love toward us, perhaps then we would begin to move beyond the act of receiving Holy Communion into the state of being in communion with God.

I think the only reason the prodigal son knew he could return to his father, was because his father did give him the inheritance. Smart father. Good father. And to think that the father in that parable was only a foreshadowing image of our Heavenly Father! Oh, when shall we go and behold the face of this God!? +