You’re never too old to learn – so the saying goes – and I am living proof! Truth is, I believe I learn something new each day and I am open to do so. Science has proven that people can learn at any age, and as we age, the possibility of learning doesn’t deteriorate. Fact is, as some people age their brain gets sharper – and that’s good to know!

One of my recent learnings was an AHA moment. It was in rereading writings from Fr Richard Rohr, in his book, The Universal Christ, that the revelation hit home, “My God, I really am what I eat! I also am the Body of Christ.” WOW!Allow me to elaborate. In his book The Universal Christ, Father Richard shares: “When Jesus spoke the words “This is my Body,” I believe he was speaking not just about the bread right in front of him, but about the whole universe, about every thing that is physical, material, and yet also spirit-filled.”

He went on to say: “A true believer is eating what he or she is afraid to see and afraid to accept: The universe is the Body of God, both in its essence and in its suffering… We are not just humans having a God experience. The Eucharist tells us that, in some mysterious way, we are an ingested God having a human experience!”

Fr Richard further writes: “The core message of the incarnation of God in Jesus is that the Divine Presence is here, in us and in all of creation, and not only “over there” in some far-off realm.”

The Incarnation – the belief that the Creator God took human form in the person of Jesus -the central event of all history, was foreseen from all eternity, even independently of the sin of man, so that all creation could give praise to God the Father and love Him as a unique family gathered around Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus the Christ is the beginning, middle and end of creation. He stands at the centre of the universe as the reason for its existence. The Apostle and evangelist John states that clearly in the prologue of his Gospel, “In the beginning…”

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn wrote: The bread that Jesus handed to you, to us, is real bread, and if you can eat real bread you have real life. But we are not able to eat real bread. We only try to eat the word bread or the notion of bread. Even when we are celebrating the Eucharist, we are still eating notions and ideas. “Take, my friends, this is my flesh, this is my blood.” Can there be any more drastic language in order to wake you up? What could Jesus have said that is better than that? You have been eating ideas and notions, and I want you to eat real bread so that you become alive. If you come back to the present moment, fully alive, you will realise this is real bread, this piece of bread is the body of the whole cosmos.

If Christ is the body of God, which he is, then the bread he offers is also the body of the cosmos. Look deeply and you notice the sunshine in the bread, the blue sky in the bread, the cloud and the great earth in the bread. Can you tell me what is not in a piece of bread? The whole cosmos has come together in order to bring to you this piece of bread. You eat it in such a way that you become alive, truly alive… Eat in such a way that the Holy Spirit becomes an energy within you and then the piece of bread that Jesus gives to you will stop being an idea, a notion. [Thich Nhat Hanh, Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers].

Jesus taught us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread…” not tomorrow, not yesterday, but this day! Come back to the present moment, fully alive. In Jesus God embraces the human condition, making himself accessible, establishing a covenant with humankind.

Getting to know Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the way to the Father. If we want to know the Father, get to know Jesus. How do we get to know Jesus? The same way as we get to know anybody. By spending time together. Each time we gather around the Eucharistic table, we become together the living body of Christ.

Jesus is a promise of new life for all creation. Christ is everywhere! The purest form of spirituality is to find God in what is right in front of you, the sacrament of the present moment.

Have a golden day and treasure life!