The story is told of a teacher who tore a map out of the National Geographic Magazine and cut it into small pieces. He told his second grade class that he wanted them to fit the pieces together like a puzzle. One boy took the pieces of the map and had it put together in a matter of a few minutes.

The teacher asked the boy how he had done it so quickly. The boy explained that on the other side of the map was a picture of a man. He put the man together and thereby completed the map.

Jesus is the one that brings everything together. Jesus is God made man. Jesus shows us the Father.

There are many ways that Jesus makes himself present in our lives. The most special way for us Catholic Christians is the Mass. It is here that Jesus comes to us as the Word that heals us.

Jesus comes to us as the food that feeds us. Jesus comes and gives us his family.

St. Paul tells us in the second reading that we are not just to follow the commands of Jesus.

We are called to let Jesus bring our lives together. We are called to live Jesus Christ.

One of the more difficult things that we can do is to try to make sense of our lives that are filled with so many things that don’t fit together. The problems in our lives don’t make any sense. The many things that are going on in our lives pull us apart. When we allow Jesus’ Word to come into us, we may not necessarily understand in a logical way what our lives are all about. We do hear Jesus tell us that we are loved by him, and that he is always with us as friend. It can bring all those pieces of our lives that will never fit together to come together because of Him.

The Eucharist brings all people into the fabric of our lives. Today is Mission Sunday. We pray and support those missionaries who left our country to go to people of other cultures to preach the Gospel of Christ.

Sometimes I hear people say that they don’t want to read the newspaper anymore because it is filled with such tragic stories. These tragic stories are about our brothers and sisters. When we do read the newspaper, we can bring these people to this altar on Sunday and allow them to become touched by the death and resurrection of the Risen Jesus. We become a part of them and they to us because Jesus brings us together.

People will say that they don’t want to vote because it will not make any difference. Have you ever heard the expression of separation of Church and State? Jesus joins the two together because our country is the place and the people where we live Jesus.

In the Eucharist Jesus gives us his family that is the Church. We are the family of God. It is not that we have the same common interests, or jobs, or backgrounds. We have Jesus in common.

He is the one that brings us together. The more that we know one another and the more we get closer to one another, the more we are getting closer to Christ.