Eucharist

The Eucharist is the ultimate participation in something greater than myself, and the fact that it requires participation reminds me that, much as I'd often like to, I can't trod the spiritual path alone.

I'm pretty sure that when Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," John 14:6, he wasn't saying that if I'm not Catholic, I'm going to hell.

I think maybe he was saying that if I don't come through him, in contact with him--which is the reality of my broken self, and my broken brothers and sisters--then I'm going to miss the gift.

I think maybe he was saying that the flesh-and-blood human encounter, in all its messiness, its awkwardness, its necessary incompletelness, is the way we come to God.

Source: Redeemed, Viking Press, 2008, page 132-133.