August 20, 2006

Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

In life, we hunger for many things. We hunger for instance, for love. We want to love and to be loved. Is that true? I think that is 100% true. We also hunger for food, and when we eat something, we are satisfied. Yet, in each one of us, there is the deepest hunger, which only God can satisfy. St. Augustine saw this. He said, “Our hearts are in search and restless, until they rest in God.” He realized that this hunger which lies in a secret place where no one can reach. He said, Jesus also saw that. Because of that, to keep us from being restless until we rest in God, Jesus decided to give us his very self “for my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink.” The idea of flesh and blood, in Hebrew means in fact, receiving the whole person. It symbolized the whole person. When we receive the Eucharist, we receive the living person. We are receiving Jesus.

When I say this, I am reminded of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Amongst Catholics, only 30% believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. How about the rest of us? What do we believe? Jesus is really and truly present in the Eucharist. His presence, of course, is beyond our understanding. What we see is the bread and we see the wine. It is only faith that allows us to make that leap of faith, to see in the bread and in the wine, Jesus himself. We Catholics believe that at that consecration, we believe in what the theologians (they like to use big words you see) they call it transubstantiation. It is simply that at the consecration, Jesus is truly present. The bread is no longer bread, but the body. The wine is no longer wine, but the blood. Opposed to what Luther said. Luther said there was consubstantiation. Meaning, at the consecration, Jesus is, as it were, present there, as if he were side by side with what we see. That’s not what we believe. We believe that Jesus is really there.

When we receive the Eucharist, we receive Jesus himself. The Jesus that we receive in the Eucharist is the same Jesus who gave his life for us. The words of Consecration remind us of this. “This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you.” This communion should evoke in us a spirit of sacrifice. Receiving this food must remind us that like Christ, we too must be willing to give our lives in service of other people. We must think of the other people in as much as Jesus himself thought of us.

When I speak of this, I am reminded of this story of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. When a newcomer arrived, in order to join her order, the Sisters of Charity, she had a rule. The following day, she would say to the person, “You saw during mass what love and care the priest touched Jesus in the body and you saw with what love the priest touched Jesus in the cup. Now, go to the home for the dying and do the same. It is the same Jesus you will find there in the broken bodies of the poor.” The real point was that Mother Teresa wanted this newcomer to realize the connection between receiving Jesus and life itself. Jesus, when we receive him, means something to our life. He sends us out to do something. That was her real point.

Even St. John Chrysostom said this, “Do not receive my body in church dressed in your finest and then encounter me on the streets disguised as the poor and take no notice of me.” This is what we do.

When we receive Christ, the readings we are getting from this day, from last Sunday and maybe next Sunday are from the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 6. The emphasis is, do we really believe in the presence of Jesus. Next Sunday, Jesus will recall the demanding pressures on the disciples that will shock you. You eat my flesh and drink my blood. It will shock you. If it does, He doesn’t say, “OK, never mind, you’d better not.” He stresses, that this is my body, and this is my blood. You can take it or leave it. We are invited to reflect a little on the presence of Jesus.

I am reminded of what someone said to me one time. When we look at the body of Christ, before receiving him in Communion, it is hard for us to see Christ in it. But when other people look at us after we receive the Body of Christ, it is even harder for them to see Christ in us. Is that true or not? I don’t know. Let’s work today to see if it’s true or not.

Lastly, when we receive the Eucharist, it must cleanse us so that we can see Christ in us. We can proclaim as St. Patrick did, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me.” It is that Christ who sends me out to do something.