Jun222025
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Know the Price.

Every time I go on a fishing trip, my phone gets damaged by water. To remedy this, my brother gave me a waterproof camera for Christmas. Naturally, he wanted me to send him a few pictures from the new camera. To do that, I needed to figure out how to use the numerous buttons and dials. Then, I had to learn how to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer. After that, I needed to send the pictures from the camera to my brother. In order to do all that, I needed to read the 100-page manual. It’s a lot of work, and I considered using the camera as a paperweight, but I couldn’t do that because I really wanted to use it to its full potential. I wanted to get the most out of the gift.
Today we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ, the greatest gift we could receive from God, because it offers us eternal life. We want to learn how to use this special gift to its full potential. We want to get the most out of the gift. How do we do that? By learning the value of the gift.

Remember the time before the credit card, when we needed to pay everything in cash. The first thing we did when we went to a restaurant was to check out the prices to ensure that the cost of the meal would match the money in our pockets. “I guess I am not getting the steak tonight.”

When I was young, I asked Dad why he liked to deer hunt. He told me, “When you hunt for your food, you experience something that you do not get in a supermarket. You hear the cry of the deer, see it fall, and you look at the face as it takes its last breath. You realize that a creature paid the ultimate price for you to live another day. You appreciate food.

When we receive the ultimate divine gift of the Eucharist, we are invited to experience the nails, the cross, the burial wrappings, and the tomb. We realize the price, the cost, the value of this divine gift. When we do, we are grateful. And the more we are grateful, the more we are drawn to generosity. The way we offer our lives to God in his service is how we will get the most out of the greatest gift.

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