Presence changes people. We tend to absorb, mimic, and imitate the people that are present to us. Basic Psychology will tell us that we are the average of the five people that we spend the most time with. Additionally, there is plenty of evidence that we pick up traits from our fathers and mothers even if we grow up strongly disliking their behaviors. Habits and attitudes are contagious. Who and what we surround ourselves with matters. It changes us.
This is the way God created us. We were created to be in communion with Him and each other. Thus, presence is important. God created a realm of beauty, truth, and goodness that is ordered to the revelation of Himself to us. This universe is created for the simple fact that God desires to be in an intimate relationship with us, the human race, who are the pinnacle of His creation.
Yet, God has gone further in proving His love for us than just giving you a nice place to exist. He was intentionally present to us at the beginning of human history. Even after our first parents rejected Him by breaking His one command which caused the human race to be fundamentally separated from Him, God descended into the chaos and pain caused by our sin (a place He never needs to go) and still offered Himself completely to us. In doing so, God has offered not just a return to full communion with Him, but has gone a step further and offered us a share in His divine Trinitarian life. In our sin and the consequential fall out of communion with Him, God raised us in His mercy to something greater than we were before.
This is not just a story in the past. This is the current story that is playing out, both on a personal and a universal level. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but the living (Mat 22:32). God is alive now, reigning until all of His enemies are placed under His feet (1 Cor 15:25). He is calling each of us to Him to experience the love that He has for us and for us to share that love with the world. He is calling us to Himself, right at this moment. Regardless if we are the holiest of living saints, or the most vile sinner, or somewhere in between, God is calling us into a deeper relationship with Him, and His call is always present to us in His Word.
God has always been present to time through His Word. He created with His Word when He spoke at creation. He singled out and formed the people of Israel through His Word to the Patriarchs. He guided them, ordered, and taught the nation of Israel how to worship through the Word of His Law. He prepared the people of Israel for His coming in His Word to His prophets. Finally, the Word of God took on flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus. Jesus’ life on earth was devoted to drawing close to us to heal us.
To grow deeper in relationship with God, we come to know His Son Jesus, The Word of God. Jesus descended into our valley of tears caused by our separation from Him, and took on our human nature. Despite our sin, He desired to be present to us. With His human nature, He fully revealed to us who God is and showed us who we were meant to be. He proves His love for us through His ministry of healing which culminates in His crucifixion that provides mercy and healing for our sins.
Yet, Jesus knew that after His death and resurrection, He must ascend to the Father to intercede for us. In His last moments before His Ascension into heaven, Jesus promised that He will be with us until the close of the age (Matt 28:20). He still desired to be present to us even as He went to Heaven to ask the Father to send us His Spirit. Jesus assures us that whenever two or three are gathered in His name, He is there with them (Matt 18:20). In addition, Jesus goes a step further to be present with us. His very last action before His suffering and death was gathering His followers for the Passover meal of bread and wine. In this meal, He proclaimed the bread is His Body and the wine is His blood (Mat 26:26-28). He commanded that whenever they gathered, they would celebrate this meal in memory of Him. In this command and the sending of His Spirit at Pentecost, He gave the Apostles, with whom He shared this meal of His Body and Blood, the ability to make present His Body, Blood, and Divinity every time they worshiped God in His name. Until He comes again, Jesus is present with His Church in the form of bread and wine.
This is what we celebrate on Corpus Christi Sunday. Jesus desires to be present to us even after His Ascension. He humbles Himself to be present in the form of bread and wine at the hands of sinful men, for the very purpose of drawing close to all people throughout the world. He does not force Himself. Rather, He offers Himself to us, so that we can approach Him. The more that we approach and consume Him humbly, we will be changed. We just have to make the decision to be present to our God, and we can be not only like Him, but in Him. And if we are present to Him now, we will be present to Him for all eternity.
