As Good As It Gets: The Eucharist

I spent more than half my life seeking God, trying to get close to Jesus  (failing often). As a newly re-born Christian I read the scriptures daily, prayed fairly regularly, though I never got the "quiet time" down as a daily discipline, my compass (on most days) was trying to point me to true North. I never missed Sunday worship, participated in the body-life of the church, but over time, just had the sense I was missing something. I even thought if I studied theology as hard and intensely as I studied my vocation of medicine, maybe, just maybe, that would be the secret. I gave up pretty quickly on that idea when I realized I really didn't know which theology was the right one. If I was going invest time and energy on a degree in theology, I should be sure which was the right one, but I wasn't sure.

     About two years after this point of feeling like Jack Nicholson's character who asks "what if this is As Good As It Gets?"  I went to see a new movie called The Passion of the Christ. I was miraculously led back to the Catholic faith (The full story is here). I discovered the most sublime reality of my life - Jesus had been there all the time. Not just a notion, a theology, a feeling, an emotional experience, but Jesus. Yes! Jesus Christ truly, really, substantially abiding here with me in the Eucharist. Only by the grace of God I have been led here, my eyes opened to Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread.  The closest I can get to God on this earth is in adoring Him and receiving Him in the Blessed Sacrament. I no longer wonder if this is as good as it gets.