Consider this… Eating our way to heaven.
Is the Eucharist our favorite meal? Something about food is relatable. Food brings us nutrition, sustenance, life, pleasure, enjoyment, energy. Without food we die, it’s as plain as that. Google states that a person can live 8 – 21 days without food before death. How long can we live without Eucharist before our ‘spiritual death?’
This weekend as we celebrate the Body and Blood of Jesus, we are reminded that the Eucharist is food for the journey, our Bread of Life! Without this food, we starve ourselves on our pilgrimage towards heaven. ‘The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1324)
Is the Eucharist the source and summit of all we do? As the Eucharist is to feed us on our pilgrimage through life it should give us the energy, sustenance, enjoyment and true fulfillment that we desire in life. We might struggle to fully understand it, but the Eucharist should be the catalyst of why we live as we do as disciples. Just as Jesus shared his very life in ministry and love, that is shared with us in the Eucharistic meal. At the same time though, we must see Eucharist as a sacrifice, as Jesus’ sacrifice offered for us. The Eucharist as meal and sacrifice should put into perspective the depth of love that God offers us. Not only does the Eucharist show us how much Jesus loves us by dying on the cross for our sins, but also that Jesus gives his very self in Body and Blood so we can inherit eternal life.
So the question this weekend for us is… Are we Eucharistic people? Do we share in the meal offered by Jesus himself each week on the Lord’s Day? Do we recognize the sacrifice Jesus made for us and come to share again in that sacrifice when we gather at mass? This weekend as the ‘obligation’ to attend mass is reinstituted, we should look at our lives and recognize that to celebrate the Eucharist should never be an ‘obligation’, but a true privilege.
May all of us encounter the true food for the journey, encourage one another to fully participate in Eucharist, welcome those who are coming home to Jesus and may we embody the living presence of Christ by our very lives. Remember… we become what we receive.
Keep Smiling 😊
Fr. Bryan