I’ve written before about my five-year-old son at Mass. He’s in that in-between stage—just big enough that holding him through the whole liturgy is a workout, but still little enough that he wants nothing more than to be in my arms.
This past Sunday, as the final hymn faded, an image struck me. My son, not yet old enough to receive the Eucharist, nestled against me—heart to heart.
In that moment, I realized though he can’t yet receive Christ sacramentally, he is drawn—perhaps subconsciously—toward the One who now dwells in me. After I receive the Eucharist, Jesus is truly present within me. And so when my son asks to be held, he’s coming as close to Christ as he can.
Of course, Christ is present in him too, in a different way. But that longing to be near, to rest in my arms—it reminds me of how our hearts are made to rest with God.
There’s something deeply Eucharistic about being “heart to heart.”
After receiving the Eucharist, we carry Jesus out into the world. It’s a truth we can’t afford to forget: for some people, we might be the closest encounter with Christ they’ll have that day.