Where I grew up in a village on the little island off the west coast of Ireland it was very barren. There were almost no trees or flowers or bushes or anything like that--except, at this time of year.  In one corner of the island an extraordinary miracle would happen and there would be hundreds upon hundreds and then thousands of rhododendra in full bloom.  And the whole countryside would be filled with the aroma.  And, as you drove through it, it felt like you were driving through paradise.

Then, on Corpus Christi, for the procession, the rhododendra were splayed on the grounds and we all marched over them and the priests sang Thomas Aquinas’s mystical song above the Eucharist:  Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium.  That was a long time ago, but that’s my memory of the Eucharist back then.

Many things have changed, but the Eucharist remains the same.  However, our understanding of it, perhaps, has changed.  For example, who is it meant for?  Well, Thomas Aquinus again provides the answer in one of his hymns called Esca Viatorum (Food for Wayfarers) – travelers, people who are on a journey, who have not yet arrived, who are weak and hungry perhaps, people like those in the mountains. It was a deserted place and they didn’t know where to turn and Jesus said to them, “Esca Viatorum”.  And for us, on our way through life, when things grow difficult and we need a lot of help, there is no better place to turn to than to Jesus in the Eucharist because He will give us the help we need:  “Esca Viatorum" —the Food for Wayfarers.

Now that is very different from what I was brought up with.  I was brought up with the idea that to receive communion you had to be almost perfect.  You had to have sanctifying grace and this grace and the other grace, and I never knew whether I had any of them.  And, as a consequence, in our little parish on a Sunday morning very few people would go to communion—a few children and a handful of adults.  And who were the adults?  Well they were the holy people.  How do you know they were the holy people?  Well, because they sat up in front!  And then, every so often someone would come up from the back of the church and all the heads would turn (He laughs) and that gave us something to gossip about for a week because not a whole lot of things happened on that island.

But you know, that person had it right.  Maybe some great heartache, some great disappointment, some great trial or travail and he or she said, “I need help.”  And, the Eucharist is for people who feel themselves to be in need of help. 

So, “who can receive?”  I did some research into St. Thomas Aquinus when he wrote about that subject.  Since he writes in such glowing and high flowing terms about the Eucharist, I felt he might say that very few people should come to receive but it is the very opposite.  This is what he wrote:  “To the poor He gives the plate that holds His body.  To the needy He gives the cup that holds His blood, saying, 'receive this gift that I offer—everybody take and eat, everybody take and drink.' ”  So when people say to me, “Should I come to the Eucharist or should I not?”  I always say, "Give yourself the benefit of the doubt.  Jesus never turned anybody away from His table. He’s not going to turn you away and He’s not going to turn me away."

Finally, how should we respond to such a great gift?  Well, with a heart full of thanksgiving, I think, for such a wonderful mystery and grace.  And also try to lead our lives in a generous way because the Eucharist is part of the generosity of God.  And so today, I give thanks for this wonderful sacrament just as powerful today as on that magical day years ago when the scent of rhododendra filled the air.




Amen