Gn 14:18-20
Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4
1 Cor 11:23-26
Lk 9:11b-17 Full Readings
The Eucharist
Today we remember with gratitude and celebrate Jesus’ gift of his Body and Blood to us; what we Catholics call the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the most fundamental part in the life of a Catholic, a summit of Christian life (CCC 1324), for it is Jesus Himself, whom we receive, eat and drink. To give one’s own body is to give one’s time. To give one’s own blood is to give one’s very life. We might give our body but, when we give our life as well, the gift becomes truly personal. Jesus gives his body and pours out his life for love of us, to transform the world into a new creation. As we receive his body and blood in communion, let us be filled with gratitude for this amazing gift of Jesus, who wants not only to be close to us but to fill our hearts and dwell within the temple of our body, bringing with him his father and the spirit who unites them in love. In imitation, we must pour out ourselves in love for others and transform the world into a community of loving and self-sacrificing persons. What a magnificent gift we have as Catholics!
The Eucharist is the highest and perfect prayer of Thanksgiving which we give to the Father for a wonderful gift of Jesus. This is done in Mass, and the Eucharist is the second fundamental part of mass after the Liturgy of the Word. What a magnificent gift we have as Catholics! The Eucharist is so important for our Spiritual growth and being in communion with Jesus. It is our spiritual food, the food which sustains us in this earthly journey, far different from our normal food, in that, when we eat normal food it transforms into our bodies, but when we receive the Eucharist, we are fully transformed into Christ, we share his life and his Divinity. The bread gives us spiritual nourishment and blood being the sign of life makes us sharers of His divine life, as a gift of God.
When we receive from the Lord's table we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, who makes us sharers in his body and blood. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.) calls it the "one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Ad Eph. 20,2). This supernatural food is healing for both body and soul and strength for our journey heavenward. When you approach the Table of the Lord, what do you expect to receive? Healing, pardon, comfort, and rest for your soul? The Lord has much more for us, more than we can ask or imagine. The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist is an intimate union with Christ. As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens us in charity and enables us to break with disordered attachments to creatures and to be more firmly rooted in the love of Christ.
Eucharist has been from the beginning, part of God’s plan of salvation. Our fathers were fed with Manna from heaven when they were in a desert: the food which sustained them in their journey. This Manna was a model and an anticipation of the bread from heaven which is the body of Christ. This same instance we see it in today's Gospel as Jesus feeds the five thousand. These anticipate the body and blood which Jesus would give as the Eucharist, but above all the perfect Eucharistic banquet which we will behold when we reach in heaven.
Christ the high priest takes up the role of Melchizedek and perfects it. Today, especially from the firs reading we celebrate the high priesthood of Jesus which is superior to that of Old Law. He gives us the Eucharist as St Paul tells us in the second reading, but also as he was going back, he also instituted ministerial priesthood so that through the species of bread and wine he may always come to us in order that we receive him sacramentally as we await for the great Eucharistic feast in heaven. When we receive bread and wine we have received him truly as he is. Faith alone suffices with this great mystery.
We need to understand what Eucharist really means and when we take it, we should not just take it for sake. That's why it requires prior preparation. By eating Christ we are assimilated into him. But, just as, if I am sick, food does me no good and can even harm me, so if I eat Christ sacramentally without wanting to be moulded into him, it does me no good at all. The Eucharistic effect in us is due to our inner disposition.
Today, let us join St Thomas Aquinas in his song as we adore the Eucharist for really we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present body and soul. In his beautiful traditional hymn, “Adoro te Devote,” St. Thomas Aquinas writes, “I devoutly adore You, O hidden Deity, truly hidden beneath these appearances. My whole heart submits to You, and in contemplating You, it surrenders itself completely. Sight, touch, taste are all deceived in their judgement of You, but hearing suffices firmly to believe…” What a glorious statement of faith in this wondrous gift. Do we have this faith? Our senses are deceived. What we see, taste and feel do not reveal the reality before us. The Eucharist is God. Since the Eucharist is God Almighty, we must see Him there with the eyes of faith in our soul. We must profoundly adore Him as the angels do in Heaven. We must cry out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.” We must be moved to the deepest of worship as we enter into His divine presence.
Reflect today on how deep your love is for the Eucharist? Do you believe in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist? Do you long daily to receive the Eucharist? What are things which make you unworthy to receive the Eucharist? Pray to God so that He will open ways for you to always receive Christ in the Eucharist. Spend some time in silence and commune with all the adorations done today on the whole world, surrender all your prayers and receive Christ Spiritually since you can't access the tabernacle.
Let us pray
I adore you Christ in the most Holy Sacrament and I wish to be with you always. I ask you that since I cannot receive sacramentally at the moment come into me spiritually though you have already come. Amen.
Be blessed
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