There is an old, old song, a love ballad, that has a simple, one word title. The song is “Always”, and in it, the lover makes this promise to his beloved: I’ll be loving you always, with a love that’s true, always….And then there is the final commitment, namely that this love will last “not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but ALWAYS!

If you want to know the truth, that song “Always” is God’s own love-song. Whether we know it or not, whether we hear it or not, whether we like it or not, God is constantly singing that song to us every day, every hour, of our life. We therefore are called to respond and our only obligation, our only response, is not to tune him out and answer yes to his invitation.

How do we know, and why can we say, that this is God’s love song? The answer to these questions is found in the old children’s song: “Jesus loves me, that I know, because the Bible tells me so.” What a tremendous promise! What a comforting assurance. What a consolation it is for us to find in the Gospel so many stories and incidents that show how Jesus, God’s only Son, embodied God’s love by working miracles to benefit God’s people.

In the Gospel story, where we have Jesus multiplying 5 barley loaves and 2 fish to feed the multitude, is one of those incidents. The story , I’m sure is a familiar one to most of us, and we know that it can be applied directly to the most precious gift, the most significant sign of God’s love, namely the Holy Eucharist. Just as one day long ago Jesus had pity on and fed the crowds of hungry people who followed him into the desert, so today he still has pity and still feeds us with the love gift of himself, the spiritual food we call Eucharist or Holy Communion.

And there is still more. Our dear Lord stays with us always in this Blessed Sacrament, remaining with us (and here we go back to our theme song) not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always!

When we read the lives of the saints, we discover that most if not all of them had a singular devotion to and love for the Eucharist. It was and is and must be the source of strength for the martyrs and those who still suffer for their faith. It was and is and must be the heart and center the source and summit of our faith. In the jargon of today, the Eucharist is what religion is all about, the name of the game, the bottom line.

And why is this so? It is true because the Eucharist is God-with-us, God present under the form of bread and wine, God’s all-embracing and enduring love captured in the thin host, the droplets of wine, present there because Jesus said he would not leave us orphans, but would be with us always, until the end of time.

Our resolve today should be to promise total fidelity to the Lord in the Eucharist for the rest of our lives. Our hope today should be to be more grateful for the gift of the Eucharist. And our pledge today should be that responding to God’s love for us we will try to show our love for him, not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but ALWAYS!

Have a great summer !

Deacon Ed