To become part of Him...

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

May 6, 2022: Celebrating St. Dominic Savio

Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

'The one who eats me will have life because of me', declares the Lord today. As I draw life from the Father, so shall that person who eats my body and drinks my blood, draw life from me, the Lord explains. It is simply, like a stem that draws life from the root and the branches and leaves which draw life from the stem in turn - a call to be connected, a call to be united, a call to feel one with! 

Saul turns Paul, the persecutor turns proclaimer... an absolute transformation that changed history for ever - simply because he experienced Christ personally! The experience gripped him, grafted him on to Christ and thus united him to a root that changed the entire sense of his life. There was a radical transformation, because Saul found his real root, from where his life came!

The Lord invites us to a personal experience of himself... eat my flesh, drink my blood, become part of me; remain in me and I shall remain in you - and we shall be one! As the Father and the Son are one, the Son invites us to be one with him; thus we can tell the world - I and the Lord are one. Paul dared say that: be imitators of me as I am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). Can we? I can say that only if I really strive on a daily basis to unite myself with the Lord, to become one with the Lord, to become part of the Lord. 

Everyday is an opportunity to grow closer, and more and more connected personally with Christ! Every Eucharist we celebrate is a moment to become increasingly part of him, to remain rooted in him and to allow the Lord to remain in us. Being imitators of Christ is not merely a matter of doing things, rather an essential change, a radical transformation of our very selves - it is to become more and more, a part of Him!

Dominic Savio, the teenage saint whom we celebrate today, was intent on this - to become part of Him, to remain totally united in Him. There were instances when the little Dominic was lost in ecstasy with the Eucharistic Lord for a whole day! What a lovely reminder this little giant of sanctity is, to the call that all of us have: to grow to become part of Him!