“TAKE IT, THIS IS MY BODY”.
Listening to Jesus talk about eating His Body and drinking His Blood, appears to be a primitive recipe for cannibalism. However, He is not inviting us to eat His Human Body, but to eat His Sacramental Body. At the last Supper (Mk 14:12-16,22-26), before He died and rose again, Jesus miraculously presented and offered His Eucharistic Risen Body, to His disciples and to us today in every Mass. At the last Supper, Jesus was preparing the world for the coming of His Eucharistic Bodily Presence in the Church. He will no longer appear in human form, instead, He now appears in sacramental form, visible in the guise of Living Bread from Heaven. He is visible in all the Sacraments of the Church. Jesus is Sacrament. His new Body is clothed in a Eucharistic Flesh, which contains His living Sacred Heart. This is the New Risen Body of Christ that He instituted at the last Supper, when He said; This is My Body. We believe because our faith enables us to believe and trust in what He said. Those who do not believe are the unfaithful.
LIKE A MOTHER FEEDING HER CHILD.
In helping to understand why Jesus wants to feed us with His Body, we must observe the feeding process of a mother and child. When the baby is first conceived in her womb, it immediately draws life from the body and blood of the mother. Her whole body will feed to form her child, hidden in the womb. This happens in order for the baby to grow up strong and be nourished, so that he or she can live and breathe. After giving birth, the mother continues to feed the child from her own body. The child will grow up in the likeness of either the mother or the father. In the same way, God feeds us with His Body, in order for us, to grow strong in spirit and holiness, to resemble His likeness and image of Love and Mercy. We are all growing within the womb of Mother Church on earth. When we take our last earthly breath, Mother Church will give us a new spiritual birth, by creating and delivering us from death into new life. Those souls who allowed Her (Mother Church), to feed them with Holy Communion, will be found worthy to live in a Eternal Communion with Jesus in Heaven. Those souls, who reject the sacramental Food of Holy Communion on earth, sadly excommunicate themselves from inheriting eternal life. Jesus, made the perfect sacrifice, by becoming the New Covenant (Heb 9:11-15), (a new Agreement for us to enter), by shedding His Precious purifying Blood, in order to cleanse and feed us from Heaven. He is hidden in the Living Bread that is His Body, as a living child is hidden in the womb. When we receive, we say, Amen, which means, I Believe. As baptised Christians, we are members of His one Body. We are to live as one family in Holy Communion with each other. God bless, Fr. Brendan.