God is present in the Word; God is present in the Eucharist. In the Economic Trinity, the Incarnate Second Person is the Mediator who prays and saves by his presence. He is Emmanuel. Therefore whether we pray the Psalms or partake of the Eucharist, we are united with Our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom alone we 'come' to the Father.

1. THE PSALMS AND THE EUCHARIST
(By Evelyn Onwuegbusi)
INTRODUCTION
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace
be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my
hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28
Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe."
John 20:26-29
The Lord Jesus promised that after he had left this world in the form
that our senses could perceive, he would still be with us always, in a
form insensible to the senses. This was made clear in his words of
reassurance: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the
age." (Matt 28:20). Resurrected, he could no longer be constrained by
closed doors or barricaded tombs. Indeed, there was never any human
situation too difficult for him to handle. “26 But Jesus looked at them
and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are
possible."Matt 18:26. The only barrier to divine activity in our lives is
our unwillingness to accept and surrender to God. Total self surrender
to God is not a blind or stupid assent to some half-baked knowledge
of revelation, but a conscious and humble response to our call to
faith, constantly renewed and enlightened by reason. It is not that God
cannot scale the fence or hurdle of our faithlessness. Rather, God will
not save us against our wish. We must accept and believe, trust and
surrender.
In John 20:28 cited above, Thomas confessed Jesus as ‘Lord and
God’. Without delving into the exegesis or redaction of the Thomasine
confession, it is fair to acknowledge that it remains one of the most
significant testimonials to the divinity of Jesus, and an important
scriptural reference for the doctrine of the Trinity. According to Thomas,
Jesus is both Lord and God. There is no Christianity without total
assent to this solemn proclamation. If Jesus is not God, then there is
no incarnation, no salvation, no redemption, no Christianity, and so
forth. Jesus is God, the second person of the immanent and
omnipresent Most Holy Trinity. Jesus is everywhere at all times though
in forms that faith, rather than sensory perceptions, can appreciate.
However, it is his desire to remain with us in a corporeal manner and

2. he fulfils this desire and promise by his Eucharistic presence. Jesus is
present in the Word, in the Eucharist and in Community.1
At the
incarnation, the transcendent God condescended to assume human
nature to be completely one with us in all things except sin. This is
clearly expressed in the fourth chapter of the Letter to Hebrews:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet
without sin.
Heb 4:15
Can anyone attempt to explain why the divinity had to become human;
the creator became like created; why the timeless un-originate God
came in time and why the immortal God died a mortal man? And
why does the incarnate glorified Jesus abide with us inconspicuously?
Let us look at one instance of a person who came close to divinity
in the Scriptures.2
Moses:
2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush;
he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said,
"I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned
up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him
out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then he said,
"Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you
are standing is holy ground." 6 He said further, "I am the God of your father, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his
face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 2: 2-6
Moses was eager to approach, to look and to see, till he realised that
what he sought with nature’s eyes was extra- natural. He was warned
not to come close and he even had to take off his shoes. Moses hid
his face, afraid to look. When God manifests himself to humanity, he
always assumes a medium comprehensible to humans. God himself is
spirit and is formless as such, so he reveals himself by going out of
the realm of his nature. The incarnation is the climax of these
Theophanies, because God revealed himself not in a shocking,
1
Vat II/Catechism
2
Many more Theophanies can be found in Scripture

3. momentary encounter, but went through nature’s procreative process of
conception and birth albeit by the Holy Spirit.3
Jesus lived with us, ate,
drank, partied and worshipped with us; he died; indeed, he was like
us in every way except sin.4
At the transfiguration, he gave us a
glimpse of the other nature within him.
1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and
led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before
them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3
Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter
said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three
dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 5 While he was
still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a
voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to
him!" 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome
by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be
afraid." 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
Matthew 17:1-8
Moses wanted to draw near when he had not quite understood what
was before him. Peter was already designing three mansions in his
mind so that the vision would not end. But at the instance of the
voice, Moses hid his face in fear; the disciples crouched on the
ground in fear.
Why does Jesus remain hidden in the Eucharist? He hides so well,
such that seeing, touching, tasting, smelling or hearing cannot help us
perceive him at all. This is captured in the hymn ‘Adorote Devote’ by
St Thomas Aquinas:
Visus tactus gustus in te fallitur
Sed auditu solo tuto creditor
Credo quid quid dixit Dei Fillius
Nil hoc verbo veritatis Deitas5
Is it that the radiance of his glorified humanity would bedazzle us, and
we would be afraid like Moses who saw the burning bush and would
3
Please note that the conception of Jesus was by the Holy Spirit.
4
Heb 4: 15
5
Translation ‘Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived
How says trusty hearing that shall be believed
What God’s Son hath told me take for truth I do
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.

4. not draw near? Or that we would be terrified like the disciples and
crouch in fear? In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus, Emmanuel and Saviour,
does not want us to be overcome with fear. He chose to remain
hidden in the Eucharist so that we can see and approach him only in
faith.
What then does Jesus expect of us in the Eucharist? Let us join St
Paul in asking: ‘what wouldst thou have me do?’6
Many answers are
possible, but one alone is necessary: believe, and believing love and
loving, follow in the footsteps of Jesus who first loved us and still
loves us in the Eucharist. God is to be loved and worshipped by
humans, for this is the purpose for which he created us, so in the
Eucharist we love and worship God.
How the worship of God is to be rendered efficaciously, is perhaps
one of the most difficult puzzles for the Christian pilgrim soul, a deep-
seated question in our quest for God. However, Paul attempted to
reassure us in his Letter to the Romans that our worrying and human
effort count for nothing except when we are united with the Holy Spirit
in prayer:
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray
as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And
God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27
The Holy Spirit gives meaning to the incarnation and the history of
salvation. He interprets God’s revelation. Through his inspiration the
Church has the written account which preserves and hands down the
message. At the end of his earthly mission, the Lord Jesus handed us
over to the care of the Holy Spirit.
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will
teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
John 14: 26-27
6
Acts 9:6

5. So whether we pray in the Eucharist, or in the psalms, the Holy Spirit
prays with us, in us and for us. Prayer affirms our faith, and deepens
our union with God, and just as we get warmth by going near the
furnace, so also we become more Godlike when we pray.
Our faith and love lead naturally to confidence in the Lord Jesus who
loves us so much. When we follow in the footsteps of Jesus who
‘came to show us the way to the Father’,7
we follow with confidence.
Jesus is the Way that we must follow; he is the Truth that we must
know and believe; the Life that must flow in our veins.8
Let us then
be led by this Way, be taught by this Truth, and let us live in this
Life, offered so generously to us in the Word of Life.
The Lord Jesus not only teaches us how to worship God but
constantly offers perfect worship to God on our behalf. The Eucharist
is a symbol of Jesus Christ’s constant supplication to his Father for
the redemption of the human race.9
Jesus continuously offers to his
Father the sacrifice of his sacred humanity for the salvation of the
souls whose ransom he already bought on the cross by these same
mysteries which the Eucharist not only symbolises but also celebrates
and re-enacts in an un-bloody manner.
The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus
Christ, truly present on the altar, in form of bread and wine.10
He is
present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It is therefore one form of
the divine presence among us.11
. To worship God through Sacred scripture is to address him in his
own words because Jesus also makes himself present to us in the
Word.
The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she
venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy,
she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life
from the table both of God's word and of Christ's body.12
7
Matt 22: 16; Mark 12:14; Luke 20: 21
8
John 14: 6
9
10
Find quote
11
Cf catechism
12
Vat 11 CHAPTER VI
SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
21. The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord,
since, specially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life
from the table both of God's word and of Christ's body.

6. The Psalms are hymns of worship which have the unrivalled status of
Word of God,13
because, like the rest of sacred scripture, the psalms
are divinely inspired. They are prayers uttered by God himself through
the lips of his specially chosen instruments.
For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great
love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so
great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, 10 the strength of
faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual
life.14
The psalms are at once prophetic and historic and the mystery of the
redemption comes to light in the psalms. They point to the Salvific
Act of Jesus which the Eucharist symbolises. In the Eucharist the
Mystery of the Redemption foreshadowed and prophesied in the psalms
is re-enacted and celebrated perpetually by the eternal presence of the
God-made-man. As we celebrate and partake of the Eucharist, we
participate in the act of salvation of the souls of all who Jesus made
his brothers and sisters, by his condescending to become man.
Jesus is the Word who speaks in the psalms;
Jesus is the Lord who lives in the Eucharist
Jesus is the Mediator who prays in the psalms;
Jesus is the Saviour who watches and saves in the Eucharist.
He who speaks and prays in the psalms and he who lives and
watches in the Eucharist is the one and the same Christ, the Second
Person in the Divine Trinity, the Saviour, whose saving act still pleads
for us insistently before his Eternal Father.15
The psalms are beautiful and easy to use. They are efficacious by
virtue of their divine inspiration; they are uttered in God’s own words.
They are prayers for every occasion and can and should be used by
every one and for everyone. The prayer of Jesus has infinite
impetration before his father. Therefore the Eucharist in itself is a
perfect prayer just as the psalms too are perfect by virtue of divine
13
Catechism
14
CHAPTER VI SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH 21.
15
Quoted from memory, source unknown

7. inspiration; however, the Eucharist is the highest possible form of
prayer, the ultimate sacrifice of our redemption, in which God is himself
both Priest and Victim.
When we pray by these means, imperfect beings meddle with infinite
perfection. Must we then despair when Jesus bids us:
“28 "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. 29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."?
Matt 11:28-30
Or be afraid when he has commanded: "It is I; do not be afraid."?16
The Holy Spirit is our Advocate,17
Intercessor18
and Father,19
and is
always available to help us in our weakness. Let us therefore hasten
in response to the divine Master’s invitation and recourse to the
Eucharist. Let us go to him in the Divine Word singing and praying
the psalms as we are taught by the “8 one instructor, the Messiah 20
for no one can come to the Father except through him.21
When we
pray the psalms, and partake of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with
Jesus and union with God is the raison d’être of our human existence.
16
John 6: 20
17
John 14:26
18
Rom 8:26
19
John 14:18
20
Matt 23: 8
21
John 14:6