MY FLESH IS REAL FOOD AND MY BLOOD IS REAL DRINK
In today’s Gospel (Jn 6:51-58), Jesus is again highlighting what Holy Communion is. He offers us His Eucharistic Flesh and Blood to eat and drink as Real food and drink for the soul. At Mass, the bread and wine are miraculously transformed into His Sacramental Body and Blood. Our journey to heaven begins now and not after we die. Catholics who reject Mass and dismiss His Real Presence in Holy Communion, will spiritually die and collapse from spiritual starvation, on the way to heaven, and sadly not make it. They must begin to discern or perceive how they think they will get into heaven without Jesus (Proverbs 9:1-6). The makings of eternal life begins here on earth in baptism and by listening and taking spiritual direction from Jesus (Matt 17:5). The Jews were shocked listening to Jesus talk about eating His Body and drinking His Blood, because it seemed like a primitive recipe for cannibalism. However, we now know that He is talking about His Sacramental Body and Blood, not in human form but in sacramental form. This is what the Risen Christ looks like today. At the last Supper, Jesus revealed the image His future Risen Body when He took bread, broke it saying; ‘This is My Body which will be given up for you’. The breaking of the Bread refers to the breaking of His Body on the Cross, resulting in the Sacraments of the Church, gushing forth from His Body (Heart) in the form of Blood (Eucharistic Life) and Water (Baptism).
BELIEVE IN HIS REAL PRESENCE IN THE EUCHARIST
Jesus, who does not lie, because He is Truth, tells us today; ‘For My Flesh is Real Food and My Blood is Real drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood lives in me and I live in him. As I, who am sent by the living Father, Myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats Me will draw life from Me.’ This divine revelation refers to what the Church calls ‘transubstantiation’. It means that the changing of the whole substance of bread and wine, into the whole substance of the Body and Blood of Christ, is brought about in the Eucharistic Prayer through the efficacy or effectiveness of the Word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit, through the Priest. While the outward characteristics of bread and wine appear to remain unaltered or unchanged, it is now Living Bread. The sacred Host contains the Real Body and Real Blood of Jesus Christ. This miracle can surpasses our understanding if we do not look at it through the eyes of our faith. We are not to live a thoughtless or senseless life, but to discern the will of God for us (Eph 5:15-20) and to ponder what will happen us on the Last day of Judgement. A child draws life from the body and blood of the mother, when fed in the womb, so he/she can live. In a similar kind of way, Jesus feeds us with His Body and Blood in the Mass, so we can also live a divine life now, and beyond the grave. Those who believe will have eternal life. God bless, Fr Brendan.