The Candy
Once upon a time, there was a nice couple. They loved sincerely and married early and tried to do things right. They were not able to have children but they loved one another, and they were happy.
The man was a laborer who, as it happened, had to get up long before his wife. He had no problem making himself breakfast and, from the earliest days of their marriage, before leaving for work, he set the table for his wife. Almost as early into their marriage, he began to bring home a little candy to leave on her plate-every single day.
One day, just short of their fiftieth anniversary, the man died. His wife missed him very, very much. especially in the morning.
It was especially difficult to get up in the morning and not find the plate with candy. More and more she began to dread it. until one day. she got an idea. Each night before going to bed, she would set her place and put a candy on her plate. When she awoke, there it was. She felt that it was from her husband because she knew that from where he was he wanted her to have it.
The Eucharist works much the same way. We set the table. On the table we put bread. We put wine. We say the blessing. But, as far as we are concerned, what we get we get from God because we believe that this is what He wants us to do.
Actually, in the case of the Eucharist, we know that this is what He wants us to do.
And why? So that time and time again, we could see that moment when Jesus revealed his decision not to run and thereby accepted the cross. So that we would have a way to bless the communion that presents the love of the cross to us personally, in a way that we can even eat, so that we can know that we can never lose God's love.