Jesus was happy in the Temple when Mary and Joseph found him after his Bar Mitzvah. Yet he went back to Nazareth and began to understand his Father’s presence and to absorb the consequences of who he was from Joseph and Mary. Mary, Jesus’s principal teacher and guide, turned to the waiters at Cana and said, “Do whatever he tells you.”  And she stood at the foot of His cross when Jesus said, “Woman, behold your son,” and “Son, behold your mother.”

We are students of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, the Apostle of the Eucharist. As a Marist priest with a significant love of the Eucharist, Peter Julian Eymard wished to share this love with his fellow Marists, but he was told and encouraged not to. So, he left his “home and family” and went in search of where God wanted him to be.

Peter Julian Eymard encouraged priests and brothers who were drawn to him to deepen their understanding that the Eucharist is Jesus alive and to adore him. Peter Julian Eymard encouraged his followers to minister to the poorest of the poor, to share the Eucharist with them, which healed their souls, opened their eyes to realize they are loved and have hope, and taught them to love one another.

Do you recognize and use the tools the apostles used to bring hope to God’s people? Do you see consequences of being denied the truth of God’s love in society: denied the reality of our guardian angels being present to us; to live in tension controlled by people who do not feed the hungry; to see their brothers and sisters bullied by those who want to control?  Slavery has many presentations.

Let us Pray:

Alleluia, alleluia. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what the hope that belongs to our call is. Alleluia, alleluia.