9 May, Friday — Connected to heaven

Friday of the 3^rd Week of Easter

Acts 9:1-20
Jn 6:52-59

“This is the bread come down from heaven…”

Back in my secondary school years, our school came up with an album to celebrate a major milestone. One of the songs was titled Tune in to God. The lyrics included a line saying ‘just stand beneath the sky’ so you can connect to God. It’s a very beautiful image – that we can have a direct connection to God. This is the image I had in mind when I read today’s Gospel.

Jesus said that ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me.’ What Jesus is saying is very clear. We get connected to the Father, who art in heaven, through Jesus. This thought itself fills my heart with delight.

A lot of us look up the sky and feel like the sky is too far. Going up to space is considered such a great human feat. Neil Armstrong even said that his step on the moon equals one giant leap for mankind. And with our human yardsticks, reaching the moon is indeed a wonderful achievement. What I’m in awe of, and have abounding gratitude for, is that we don’t even have to go to the moon; we’re already connected to someone far beyond the moon – we are connected to heaven. And we can reach heaven because Jesus made it possible.

And to top it all off, it was Jesus who came down from heaven to become our bread of life. God himself came down so that he can repair our connection to him. I was taught that only in our Catholic Church is it proclaimed that God reached out to man, rather than man extending himself to reach God. This brings to my mind the famous painting in the Sistine Chapel titled ‘The Creation of Adam’, where God reaches out to Adam with an outstretched finger, while Adam is bringing up his slightly curled finger. It shows so much how eager God is to reach us much more than we are eager to reach him. When we say ‘I love you’ to God, and he says, ‘I love you more,’ we won’t be able to refute it. We are being loved with an eternal love — God is aching to reach us.

Perhaps today, when we look up to heaven, we can search our hearts and try to discover the connection God had put in our hearts. Maybe then, when we walk for a few steps, we can savour the feeling of God reaching out to us, God loving us.

And maybe we can stretch our finger…just that little bit straighter. 

(Today’s OXYGEN by Stephanie Villa)

Prayer: Lord, please help me always choose to be with you.

Thanksgiving: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for making sure that we can reach God our Father in heaven.