Bless everyone around you all day every day and then you are the walking Eucharist. Then you are a personification of the Host. Then you are with Jesus. As Mother Teresa said, works of faith and love are always a means of bringing us closer to God.

Faith is trust and trust brings us closer to Him. If we are close to God we spread joy to everyone around us. Such benevolence, especially in the way of charity, is what Mother Teresa called “the key to Heaven.”

We go to Heaven if we live an earthly life as if we are constantly before the Eucharist, which means as if we are constantly in the Presence of God.

When we dislike—and especially if we hate—we are headed for at best the gray regions of eternity.

But just the opposite happens when we love. Just the opposite happens when we send good thoughts. Just the opposite happens when we wish another well, because when we have good thoughts we are sending a blessing. And while we are blessing we’re in communion with God.

When asked which commandment was the greatest, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your soul, and with your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it; ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole law is based, and the prophets as well” (Matthew 22:37-39).

We are to love everyone. We are to send even our enemies blessings. Love is the energy, the medium, of heaven. Without love, there is no Eucharist. Without love, there is little communication with heaven. “The man without love has known nothing of God, because God is love,” says Scripture (1 John 4:8).

God sees love like we see a searchlight. He can spot love immediately. It’s the defining quality of spiritual existence. It causes us to radiate. And it grows when we receive the Eucharist. It grows when we take Jesus into our hearts. It grows because Jesus is love and illumination.

That’s why saints are pictured with a halo. It’s an artistic rendering of a special glow that comes from a person who loves with the love of Christ.

When we love we are selfless. When we love we are blessing others. When we love our hearts are open and goodness pours forth. “After I have known it, LOVE works so in me,” said St. John of the Cross, “that whether things go well or badly, LOVE turns all to one sweetness.”

Or as St. Thérèse the Little Flower wrote to her superior: “How sweet is the way of love, dear Mother. True, one can fall or commit infidelities, but, knowing how to draw profit from everything, love quickly consumes everything that can be displeasing to Jesus…”

St. Thérèse explained that “merit does not consist in doing or giving much. It consists in loving much.” Especially, in loving God. When we die, we’re judged first and foremost on how much we have loved. Even sinners have found last-minute refuge because despite their serious transgressions, they had loved.

Hatred stirs up strife, says Proverbs (10:12), but love covers all sins. We may fall, we may make a mistake, but love knows how to draw profit from all. It quickly consumes anything that may be contrary to Christ.

And it comes through the sacraments. It comes with Communion. “The Eucharist is the sacrament of love,” explained St. Thomas Aquinas. “It signifies love. It produces love.” It is a feast of love. It is a vortex through which comes the affection of God.

As bread nourishes the body, so does Communion serve as food for the soul because it plants love. It nurtures love. It maintains love. We need little else when we have the sacrament of love.

We’re told by the saints that while on earth no one can properly appreciate the love and power of one Mass. As they say, it would be better for the sun to stop shining than for all Masses to come to a halt. The earth would plunge back into abysmal darkness. Mass is God’s greatest gift to us. No one can comprehend its value because its value is infinite. “One merits more by devoutly assisting at a holy Mass than by distributing all of his goods to the poor and traveling all over the world on pilgrimage,” said St. Bernard.

Its greatness is predicated on love. Its greatness is in its representation of unselfishness. We must love Christ through the Eucharist and then extend that love to our fellow humans. The more we receive, the more we should give. It all comes back. Love attracts love. Every time we love someone, something good happens throughout the universe. Every time we love a person, we are poised to cause a chain reaction. When we’re nice to somebody, when we show consideration, especially to a stranger, he or she is often nice to someone in turn, and then the third person also does something nice, and soon there is a domino effect.

Every time we send love, we set the stage for a beautiful turn of events—and we erase past incidents in which we sent dislike and even hatred. Every time we send love, we make up for a time in the past when we failed to send love. We make up for incidents of dislike, irritation, and impatience. We atone for ill thoughts. Think of all the people you’ve interacted with during your life and how many times you’ve felt aggravation. Count the times you’re tempted to anger. Count the times someone irritates you, or that negativity enters your thoughts. Keep a mental log of the incidents. Count the times you honk your horn or insult someone under your breath. Count the times you think of someone as inferior or “dumb.”

The most simple acts of aggravation are troublesome to God. He does not forget a minute of our lives. When we die we’re made to feel the emotions we caused in every person we ever had contact with. Good and bad. It’s all on record.

But I like to think that every time we love, every time we send out good feelings, we erase a time when we didn’t love. Each blessing—each kind thought we think about someone—erases a past curse. If we bless people all day long, we eventually make up for all the times we’ve sent curses in the form of negative thoughts. We erase all the hatred or dislike we previously held in our souls, and there is that much less to purge in the afterlife.

Bless your family each morning. Bless your friends. Bless your neighbors. Bless those who share the road or highway or sidewalk with you. Bless those behind you and those ahead of you. Bless those at the office, or the convenience mart, or the restaurant and cafeteria. Bless those on the elevator. Bless your boss. Bless your coworkers. Bless those at the bank or the mall or the gas station—and even the aggravating person taking his or her time at the supermarket checkout. Think of the person who has been causing you anger or anxiety. Think of the person who dislikes you, or who is arrogant, or a fierce competitor. Think of the person who has been envious or negative—who has been throwing you fiery darts—and feel love for that person.

In prayer, love the person who is most difficult for you to love. Love him or her. Pray for such people. If you can love them, you can love all. You’re on your way to loving everyone. Love flows to each person who crosses your path, and you develop much more benevolence.

Bless everyone around you all day every day and then you are the walking Eucharist. Then you are a personification of the Host. Then you are with Jesus. As Mother Teresa says, works of faith and love are always a means of bringing us closer to God. Faith is trust and trust brings us closer to Him. If we are close to God we spread joy to everyone around us. Such benevolence, especially in the way of charity, is what Mother Teresa calls “the key to heaven.”

We go to heaven if we live an earthly life as if we are constantly before the Eucharist, which means as if we are constantly in the Presence of God.

[adapted from Secrets of the Eucharist]