Rest and refreshment – that is what Jesus offers to us – and it is in the Eucharist that he does so.  “Make the people sit down”, was what he said that day by the Lake, and at once the restlessness and the bustle was gone as they waited for the food of the miracle.  And at every Eucharist we, too, wait for the food of the greater miracle of the Blessed Sacrament, until we come to the moment of our Communion, the eye of the hurricane where all is still whatever storms there may be around us.

“Peace be with you” was and is, the greeting of the Risen Lord to his disciples, and as then, so now he is known to us in the breaking of bread (NRSV, Luke 24:36) (see also Luke 24:30,31,35).  “Be still”, says Our Lord within our inmost being, “Be still, and know that I am God!” (NRSV, Psalm 46:10).  And so, under the forms of bread and wine he gives himself to us in his Risen and Ascended Body, so that we may dwell in him and he in us.

Rest and refreshment – the refreshment that is needed for the next stage of our pilgrimage, in which endeavour and an uphill struggle are inevitable.  For he gives us his Risen Self in all his fullness to be our supernatural food so that we may be strengthened to continue our heavenly journey, whatever difficulties and disappointments may lie ahead, until at last we reach our true journey’s end and see the King in his beauty (see Isaiah, 33:17).