It was December and Christmas was round the corner. Alvin was very excited because just a couple of days after Christmas he would celebrate his birthday. He was sure of getting at least one gift from his mother. It was Christmas Eve and the festivities began. Alvin got a new dress, a Christmas crib and some Christmas gifts from his Christmas friends but, the elusive birthday gift which he was looking forward to was still a couple of days away.

Finally the D-day arrived and Alvin waited with bated breath trying to guess what his mother would give him this time. Would it be one of those boring cars, nay! not again, may be another soft toy he thought or would it be another story book? The suspense was getting to be unbearable. Finally his mother planted a kiss on his cheek after wishing him and handed over the birthday gift. Alvin could wait no longer; he hurried into his bedroom and quickly unwrapped the gift.

He was amused to find that his mother had given him something totally different this time – it was a jigsaw puzzle. Alvin was supposed to piece the jigsaw together. Try hard as he did, he could not piece the jigsaw together and he spent most of the day running to his mother with the different pieces. Each time he ran to his mother, his mother sent him back and made him bring the entire jigsaw to her so that she could explain it to him and let him try his hand on it once more.

Our life is a wonderful yet complicated jigsaw pieced together very intricately by Jesus and the various pieces are our health, family, relationships, possessions, career, ministries etc. What we try to do when faced with a problem in any of these areas is that we try to pull out that particular piece from the entire jigsaw and take it to God instead of carrying the whole jigsaw to him. To make our life wholesome God wants us to surrender our entire life to him.

A man built a double storied mansion and Jesus came one day and knocked at the door to the entrance of his mansion. The man opened the door for Jesus and welcomed him. He showed him around and before long gave him the best room in the 2nd storey for stay and said “please stay here with me”. The man now felt secure with Jesus having taken possession of his favourite room in the 2nd storey.

Before long he heard another knock and went to open the door. Even before he could open the door properly, he felt somebody sneaking in. He was totally disturbed when he realized that it was Satan who had sneaked in. Satan made a mess of every other room in the building except the one in which Jesus stayed. All the while our man thought that Jesus would come to his aid but when Jesus did not turn up, the man, unable to stand the commotion went to Jesus and sought his help. The moment Satan saw Jesus coming out of the room he ran away. The man asked Jesus “why did you not come to my help?”Pointing to the room in which he stayed Jesus said, “Son you gave me only this room to stay, how do you expect me to interfere with what is happening in the other rooms.”

The man realized his mistake and promptly gave Jesus the whole of the 2nd storey to use. The next morning he heard a knock on the door. Thinking that it might be Jesus calling him he ventured to open the door. Even before he could open the door wide Satan sneaked in and started playing havoc in the rooms on the ground floor. The man tried his best to rid Satan but could not. After a while he lost his patience and stormed upstairs. Everything was calm and quite upstairs.

“Lord, how could Satan come in this time with you upstairs” quizzed the man. Jesus smiled and answered “Son you only surrendered the rooms upstairs to me. You put me in charge of the rooms upstairs and look there is absolutely no problem here. As for the rooms downstairs, I have already told you that I never interfere in anything that is not surrendered to me.” Saying this Jesus put his arms around the person and walked downstairs. Seeing Jesus coming Satan fled the scene. The man now realized what Jesus wanted him to do and promptly gave Jesus the keys to the entire building.

Early next morning he heard a knock at the door. This time though, even before he could answer the door, Jesus answered the door. As usual it was Satan. The man leaned against the door of his bedroom as he overheard Satan saying “Sorry, I didn’t expect you here. How did the OWNERSHIP of this building change?” Jesus answered “The building is my property now it has been surrendered to me; I am in charge, so better get going”. The man was never troubled again by Satan.

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In 1 Peter 5:6-7 St. Peter the apostle says “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.” Very often we behave like the man who surrendered one room at a time to Jesus only to find problems in the others. However we never think twice before entrusting our life to total strangers.

In our anxiety to reach the office on time, we are prepared to trust the bus or taxi driver, a total stranger with our life. We are sure that he will take us to our destination safe and sound where as the fact is that being a human he is equally likely to commit a mistake and get us involved in an accident. On the other hand we have Christ who is so sure of everything he speaks and does, and will never get us into any trouble, but, we are hesitant to trust him. What an irony.

Each time you partake of the Holy Mass, offer yourself up to Jesus at the consecration of the bread and wine and listen to him in the person of the priest acknowledging your surrender with the words “This is MY BODY”. You have given yourself up to Christ and Christ has now acknowledged your body symbolizing your life as his own. What has taken place here is a change in ownership. Your body is no longer yours but Christ’s.

What happens a few minutes after the consecration confirms this truth. Your body (read your life with all its problems) has now been accepted and transfigured by Christ into his own body. Just believe that this is the body you receive in communion and you will feel sense and see a world of difference in your day and all that you do that day.

- – - written by Lajan Miranda