I was in another country staying with Marists and didn't really know anyone.
I celebrated Mass in the parish and afterwards in the foyer of the Church a woman
wearing a bandana started talking with me. She told me about her struggle
with cancer and that she was now in remission. Something in my homily had resonated with her. I can't remember now what it was. I was moved and inspired by her story and affirmed that she felt comfortable with me, a complete stranger, to share such personal details about her life. I became aware of the privilege of priesthood and belonging to an international religious community.
As is the case often in ministry, it's the people in sharing their stories and struggles that affirm and encourage me in my faith and struggles. We seem to call something out of each other. I certainly felt less of a stranger in a foreign land. Both of us had just celebrated the Eucharist and shared in the bread of life. Christ had nourished us and in that brief communion we shared after Mass we experienced the fruit of that nourishment.
Jesus reminds us in the Gospel from John 6:24-35 that he is the bread of life and that anyone who comes to him will never be hungry and anyone who believes in him will never thirst.
How does that Word impact on your life today? Let's invite Christ into those areas of our lives
that he alone can satisfy.
Listen to track 2 'I see Christ in you' from Serenity inspired by that meeting in the foyer of the Church.
