We have
been hearing Gospel readings these past four weeks from the sixth chapter of
John’s Gospel, a chapter that help us better understand the Eucharist that we
share together each Sunday around the Lord’s table. Jesus tells us today that if we eat his flesh
and drink his blood as the true food and the true drink, we will remain in him
and he will remain in us. As Jesus tells
us he is the bread of life, maybe we can understand these statements to some
extent, but in some way this will still remain a mystery of our faith. Mystery is always a part of the way we
celebrate our liturgies and the way we see God.
Since it is still difficult for us to comprehend the mysteries of the
Eucharist as modern followers of Christ, imagine how shocking these statements
were to those in ancient Israel who heard Jesus proclaim them for the first
time. Even though this is a mystery of our faith, how can we better understand
Jesus as the living bread in a way that brings meaning & significance to
our lives?
When I was having a discussion about
the Eucharist with a youth group in one of the parishes in our diocese when I
first became a priest, I remember very clearly one of the youth asking me,
“Father Lincoln, can you seriously tell me that you really believe that the
host that we receive during the mass is actually the body of Christ?” After responding affirmatively to him, I
tried to use an analogy of how I can still believe in something that remains at
least partially a mystery to me. I
referred to all the technology we use in our modern world. It amazes me how a couple hundred passengers
can get on an airplane in one country & arrive in another part of the world
mere hours later. When I get on an
airplane in Jackson, I believe that it will get me to Canada to see my friends
later that afternoon, even though I am not a physicist or an engineer and have
no clue about the laws of physics that allow an airplane to fly in the air to
get us to the destination safely.
Likewise, I do not have to fully understand to principle of
transubstantiation at work in the Eucharist we receive at the Lord’s Table to
believe that I am truly receiving the body & blood of Christ, the bread of
life. We are to believe in our hearts,
we are to believe in our intellect, we are to believe with all our being, that
the Eucharist we receive is truly the body of Christ coming into our lives – to
us as Catholics, that is what truly matters to us.
Our first reading from the book of
Proverbs gives us some additional advice on how to approach Jesus as the bread
of life. The writer of Proverbs tells us
to forsake foolishness, to advance in the way of understanding. Wisdom has set a banquet table with a great feast
of wine and meat that has been prepared for us.
The simple, those who are searching for the truth of God with sincerity
of heart & the joyful enthusiasm of a child, are invited to partake of this
feast.
The meat and wine that Wisdom prepares
for us can be seen as a prophetic foreshadowing of the body and blood that
Christ says we must eat in order to have true life within us. The food we eat here on earth at our meals
each day provides us nourishment and strength for our earthly existence.
However, it is the Lord’s flesh and blood that we receive in the Eucharist that
provide us spiritual nourishment beyond that natural order of things here on
earth – it is food that feeds us for our spiritual journey.
As Christ tells us in today’s Gospel,
when we take in his flesh and his blood, a marvelous and inexplicable union
takes place, a union in which God is in us and we are in God. What we receive in the Eucharist is not fully
comprehended by our eyes or our teeth; rather, our union with Christ in the
Eucharist contains a life-giving power that goes beyond any logical explanation
our human understanding can give. St. Ignatius
of Loyola tells us that the very being and essence of God enters us when we
receive the Eucharist. This divine
mystery of the Eucharist requires that we not only live the reality of Christ
entering into our lives, but that we contemplate its depths of this reality and
grow in what it demands of us. I often
tell our parishioners, just think about the host receive in the Eucharist –
that it is really Christ entering our bodies & our lives in a very special way. What impact does that have in our lives? How does it influence the way we act, what we
say and what we think, if we truly believe that the Eucharist is Christ present
with us?
Christ tells us that he has life in the
Father, that he draws life in the Father.
Just as Christ was born of the Father who is life, so those who eat of Christ
will draw life from him and will be united in him. As we are drawn into this new life, we will
be transformed by Christ & into Christ.
How are you allowing Christ to
transform you in a special way as he enters you in the Eucharist? If Christ came to us this week and asked each
one of us how we were allowing the Eucharist to transform and change us in our
lives, how would we respond to him? I
think that would be a really great exercise for us - if we could all
think of a way we could really live out the Eucharist this week, to show Jesus
that it is truly making a difference in our lives and the way we live. The Eucharist we receive should make a huge
difference in our lives. How are we making that happen?
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