I saw an old Jesus
Walking through
A crowded waiting room
In a place 
no one wanted to be
He Shuffle passed me
In faded, wrinkled pajama bottoms
And a lifeless gray T-shirt
Sipping on a stained Styrofoam 
cup of coffee
He floated to a pause
In awe of the brightly colored fish 
Swimming around a shiny but finger smudged aquarium
And they seemed to multiply 
Wildly in a flurry of surreal color
that eyes could barely focus
and imaginations dare to envision
A Hand Out
became a Life Raft

My ice water took on a different taste of Merlot
that left a warm glow which seemed to illuminate within me
An ember that glowed
warmed
without incinerating
With a mere ever so light touch of his fingertips
Or a soft gaze  of his eyes
One by one we were 
metamorphosized 
And then in a much
quicker than the blink of an eye
and way less subtle than the distinct note
from a shiny trumpet
There was a suddenness 
Of difference
I not only  forgot why I was there
I was in fact
No longer there 

R    E    A    L            C    O    M    M    U    N    I    O    N

.          .          .What is real  communion.        .         .

When I met her, she asked me to bring her  real communion  and I ask her what is real communion, and she said, “you know the one with wine not with grape juice.” 

It started off an explosion of ideas and memories in me:

a little girl who asked me during a Junior Sermon one Sunday, “When can I have some of that ‘Jesus Juice’

a Deacon offering me the Cup during a recent Mass at an inpatient Hospice unit

a Eucharistic Minister who knew I wasn’t Catholic offering me Communion on a Maundy Thursday during Holy Week

catching a kid taking a hand full of Communion wafers and eating them like tic-tacs

But  mostly:

what  is  r e a l   c o m m u n i o n ?

is it actually symbolic of a piece of bread or broken bread or a way for symbolizes the broken body of Christ.       .       .

is a great juice is it real wind it symbolizes the shed blood of Christ.       .       .

Is it something less religious maybe even more spiritual.       .       .

is it the first time my father looked into the eyes of his newborn child.          .          .

is it the first time a new mom successfully Breast feeds her baby

Is it a couple on their wedding day sharing a Ritz cracker and a sip of Ginger ale because that’s what they shared on their first date in the park

is it a grandmother, literally tearing a loaf of bread in half and passing a piece each of their grandchildren on a picnic and explaining it doesn’t matter how big the piece is as long as it’s a shared piece.          .          .

is it the unspoken language between a husband and a wife of 50+ years sharing that one last look before one of them dies.          .          .

 What.          .          .

What  is  Real  Communion?

And who.          .          .

Who can have it.          .          .

Who can share or distribute it?

Probably safe to say, huh,

there are many different meanings

there are many different definitions

of what exactly is REAL  COMMUNION

is the definition that you give to it

and maybe even greater still

the Priest you are WHO Share it.          .          .

Whatever  Real  Communion  is to you

~~define it~~

share it~~

live it~~

be it…

because whatever real  communion  is,

it’s not a solitary confinement

or singular act

it ultimately is a shared experience

between you and another person

or a group of likeminded OTHERS

and if it’s not SHARED

then  it’s  not  REAL COMMUNION

~~ it’s THEN whatever it is you define as it’s exact snd complete opposite

Maybe the universal definition of real  communion is merely:

The hand who serves

r e a c h i n g

for the hand who receives

and simply

t o u c h

c o n n e c t

h o l d

(repeatedly)

The hand who serves is most like the hand who receives

only when it’s

e             x             t             e             n             d             e             d

Maybe

R E A L     C O M M U N I O N

it’s not so much

something you choose as much as

Y      O      U           L    I    V    E
(As   you   are)