Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Today’s responsorial psalm makes think of a few years ago, when my family and I went to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia and attended the outdoor Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.
During communion, we sang the hymn Taste and See, and at one point, after the choir had finish the song, the mass of 1 million people continued to sing the song anyway. So many different people, from so many different backgrounds, all together as one body, united in Christ. It was such a beautiful event, my family and I will never forget it, as it truly showed the beauty of our faith, and the beauty of Jesus Christ and what He provides for us – His very being, His very substance for us to consume into our own bodies. He’s not just providing food and drink for us, He is nourishing our very souls with Himself.
We look at the miracle in the desert, where God provided the manna for the Israelites, and then we think about the miracle where Jesus fed the five thousand. But those miracles are no match compared to miracle of the Eucharist that we experience, not only in a papal Mass, but in every Catholic church every day, around the world, where we truly taste and see the goodness and the trueness of the Lord.
We are so fortunate and blessed to be able to experience our Lord in this way.
Do we really cherish and embrace this gift, this sustenance for the soul, this oneness with God for what it truly is, or do we take this for granted? Do we even believe it’s true, that the bread and wine we receive in Holy Communion every Mass truly is the Body and Blood of Christ? Or do we just see and treat it as symbolic? These are all questions we need to continuously look into the mirror and ask ourselves.
God draws us to Him through Jesus, and that was nowhere more evident than in the Mass in Philadelphia a few years ago. God drew us from around the world to Him through His Son Jesus, through the Eucharist. But again, God does this everyday, everywhere.
God uses every event in our lives – good and bad – to bring us to Him.
The question is, do we let God draw us in, and do we embrace Jesus and let Him feed our soul, or do we take it all for granted, get lost in the distractions, and pass Him by?
We need to take the time, to slow down, and Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
