Living the Eucharist
It is with great joy that we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the consecrated bread, Jesus sought to remain with us for all eternity, as he had so promised after the miracle of the multiplication of loaves. He delivered on that promise on the evening of Holy Thursday. In every tabernacle in the world, Jesus Christ is present within the Eucharist, the very same Christ who suffered, died and rose, for each one of us.
The sacrament of the Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments because it contains Christ himself, who is present to give us His life, nourishing us with his Body and Blood in order to transform us with his grace. He Himself tells us that, “ whoever eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life.” His flesh, immolated for us on the cross, is the food that strengthens us; His Blood shed for us, is the drink that purifies us.
Along the difficult path of life, Christ gives us His Body and Blood as our food: He Himself is the true spiritual provider that gives strength and joy. Hopefully we all have this true hunger and thirst for Christ, so that we might live our lives with a deeper sense of purpose. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” When we are in the presence of Christ, we share the same intimacy as if we were with Him in heaven. For this reason, it is said that the tabernacle is the gateway to heaven. All believers should love being in the Lord’s presence in the Eucharist and treat it with solemn respect, care and great love.
The Eucharist should make us grow in brotherly love. Given that we eat from the same bread, we should live and grow in unity together with faith and love for Jesus Christ. In the Mass, Father calls for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the gifts and transform for them into the Body and Blood of Christ, and after this he involves the Holy Spirit once more so that we all may be made “one body and one spirit in Christ.” This is the ultimate purpose of the Eucharist. We should strive that today’s feast be for us a renewed impulse in our self-giving to our brothers and sisters. It should shed a new light on our entire experience. When Father says: “the Mass has ended, go in peace,” we should understand the message as: ‘love has begun”.