So today Jesus is still in the midst of his own as the Lord who suffered before entering his glory.  And that fact is supremely and uniquely true of the Eucharist.

For, as the Risen Christ came and stood in the midst of his Apostles that first Eastertide, and showed them his hands and his feet, so today after the Consecration in the Eucharist does he come in our midst in his Risen and Ascended Body, and showing those same scars to his Father, presents us as his own people whom he died upon the Cross to save.

Thus the Risen and Ascended Jesus, who still stands in our midst today, is the same Jesus who was once in the midst of this world’s pain.

And it is that fact, as well as his sharing in our human nature, which makes him kin with us, and which, in all our troubles and sorrows, assures us of his infinite understanding and his infinite compassion.