That we may receive the King of all who comes invisibly and visibly

Maybe it was because the choir at church has started singing a new melody for the Cherubic Hymn and I was paying better attention. Maybe it was because the Gospel reading was about Lazarus, who sat at the rich man's gate and begged. Maybe it was because during the Divine Liturgy I'm often thinking about how all of this prepares me for the liturgy after the Liturgy. Maybe it was all three.

After the Great Entrance and related prayers, the choir sings the second part of Cherubic Hymn. All that we have done thus far is to get us ready to receive Christ Himself in the Eucharist. "That we may receive the King of all, who comes invisibly...." Bread and wine, now the Body and Blood of Christ, comes to us visibly, yet much more than we can see, we say in faith. 

Minutes later, after having received the invisible King and after the final Amens, we are sent out that we may receive Him again. This time visibly in the Lazaruses at the edge of our awareness; in the ones beaten up by thieves and lying along abandoned roadsides; in the strangers, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the poorly clothed, and imprisoned ones (let us pay attention to this month's Gospel readings). As John Chrysostom says, "If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice." 

Perhaps when we truly find Christ in the chalice, we will notice that He is everywhere present, visibly and invisibly. May we have eyes to see, recognize, and receive Him wherever He shows up. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!