The Eucharist focuses the Christian life. It celebrates Christ's self-giving and surrender and His triumph over death. It constitutes us as the Body and Christ and is the source of our life in community. In celebrating the Eucharist we express our identity as believers. In it we are fed and strengthened.

The presence of Christ is never for me alone. Religion is not God and me alone. It is not concerned with a life of pious isolation that makes few demands. Christ's presence makes us aware of those around us. It makes us a community, binds us more fully into His Body.

The presence of Christ is never static or passive. The Gospel speaks of the active presence of Jesus. He welcomed the people, spoke to them, cured them and healed them. Then He took the food and blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. His presence was active in the Last Supper. The context was the Passover Seder tradition whose essence was the saving action of God.

The Presence of Christ then calls us to witness to the Kingdom by the quality of our lives. In the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist we see that mortality, brokenness, weakness and helplessness transformed. His presence encourages us to keep trying, never to give up. It dispels fear, brings peace. It is not inward looking but sends us out, strengthened, to touch the lives of others: to extend the saving hand, to be the healing presence, to speak the redemptive word, to change the quality of life from despair to hope, from suspicion to trust, from oppression to justice.