Today's Gospel Reading from St. Luke brings us to the end of what is known as 'The Sermon on the Plain.' In this discourse to His disciples, Jesus' intent is to convey to them the attitudes and positions which underlie all Christian life and behaviour. Using the image of a good tree bearing good fruit, He teaches that the proper Christian has to be good all the way through i.e. he has to be good in mind and heart. If this message of His is not taken seriously and their lives are not changed by the earnest practice of His teachings, then their spiritual relationship with God is without foundation and is easily destroyed.

Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, brings up the importance of the Eucharist as a sign of the Church's unity. Just as Jesus said that it was pointless for a Christian to call upon the Lord without fulfilling the demands of his faith with single mind and heart, so also does Paul speak of the necessity, as members of the Church, to be united in celebrating the Eucharist as one body. Self-serving factions cannot be one with Christ and with one another. The sacrament of the Eucharist is what makes us united in Christ. More than anything else, it is to the glory of God and is what pleases God.