“Good friends find pleasure in one another’s company. Let us know pleasure in the company of our best Friend, a friend who can do everything for us, a friend who loves us beyond measure. Here in the Blessed Sacrament we can talk to him straight from the heart.” — St. Alphonsus Liguori
Friendship, according to Aristotle, is a union. The Greek philosopher says that friends “must be mutually recognized as bearing goodwill and wishing well to each other.” In the highest form of friendship, one friend wills the good of another as if it were her own good! In other words, friends are so closely connected that true friends wish and long for the good of each as much as they want goodness for themselves. Put simply: A true friend is another self. In the Eucharist, Christ is present, as our friend. “I no longer call you slaves. … I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15). Jesus shows us the depth of his love as our friend by laying down his life for us. He encourages us to live in this friendship by faithfully following his commands. In the Eucharist he remains with us, that we might remain in the presence of his love.
LET US PRAY
Lord, let me run to you in the precious Host as I run to greet my friends. May I treasure the time in your company. May I share with you all the secrets of my heart and may you in turn give me the grace to love what you love. Amen.
PRAYER TO THE EUCHARIST
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
-Collect for the Feast of Corpus Christi, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas