Taste and see the
goodness of the Lord!
The
reflections that we’ve had throughout these weeks, guided by the Sunday
Readings, have allowed us to contemplate on this mystery of love, which is the
gift that Jesus makes out of himself in the Eucharist. He is the good shepherd
who provides for his flock the generous God who always sees to our needs and
never lets him be outdone in generosity, the Lord who feeds and satisfies the
deepest desire of the human heart. The words of the responsorial psalm this 20th
Sunday in ordinary time spring readily from a heart that has contemplated on
this goodness and has seen the fruits of divine grace: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!
It
is in the mystery and sacrament of the most holy Eucharist that the Lord gives
himself out to us, feeding us not with mere earthly food, but rather with the
bread that is his flesh and quenching our deepest thirst with the wine which is
his blood. Jesus is our food. What
ordinary bread and drink does to the organism, the miracle of Jesus’ own
self-giving makes possible in the soul: it nourishes, strengthens, and
preserves the divine life given to those who abide in his love, making the
Christian capable of doing good, leading a life of a free child of God.
The
Sunday readings lead us to consider the importance of Holy Communion in the
life of the Christian. Christ is the only one who can give the fullness of life
that he himself receives from the Father; for us to receive that life from him,
we need to be united with his very life, which was offered totally on the
cross. Holy Communion allows us to do exactly what the term says: to be in
communion, to be one with the sacrificed life of the Redeemer, to be one and
the same thing with him. We may not be crucified with Jesus on the cross so as
to share his life and to enter into his glory, but in eating his flesh and in
drinking his blood, we receive that very same life into ourselves. The Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass is also a banquet—the Eucharistic Banquet—where Jesus is
not merely the one who invites us to eat; he himself is the food, given for the
life of the world. No other food can give this life, only Jesus who is our
Eucharist.
“Unless you do not eat 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”.
These
words of our Lord that we hear in the Gospel for today would allow us to see why
Sunday Mass is very important. This is why Holy Communion is very essential in
our lives as Christians. This is the reason why all of the spiritual means the
Church gives to us as a preparation for this meeting (first among all, the
Sacrament of Penance) is very important. Without the divine life, the very life
of Jesus Christ, flowing within us, it is impossible to be Christian and to
live a life that is really pleasing to God.
In
receiving the Lord worthily in his entirety in Holy Communion—where is present
body and blood, soul and divinity—we allow God to re-create his life within us.
Our catholic faith teaches us that there are chiefly four effects of this this
wonderful union between God and man: (1) it
increases our union with Christ and his Church; (2) it preserves and renews the
life of grace received at Baptism and confirmation, and lets us grow in the
love of our neighbor; (3)it strengthens us in charity and finally (4) it wipes
away venial sins and preserves us from mortal sin in the future (cfr.
Compendium of the Catechism of theCatholic Church, n. 292).
When
we eat his body, it is not that Christ becomes part of us, just like what
happens with ordinary food when it gets assimilated into our organism. The
Eucharist is no mere food. When we receive the bread of life in communion, we
get more assimilated to Christ, and to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.
Since he whom we receive is the author of life himself, we are introduced more
into that divine life, something that we have already received in Baptism, and
strengthened in Confirmation. It makes us stronger in the struggle to better
ourselves, in weeding out our defects, and so Holy Communion is an important
means to holiness. In a thanksgiving prayer after Mass that he composed, St.
Thomas Aquinas expresses this beautifully when he asks the Lord that this
communion “may cancel my faults, destroy
concupiscence and carnal passion…may it be a firm defense against the snares of
all my enemies, both visible and invisible, the complete calming of my
impulses, both of flesh and of the spirit”.
Jesus who waits for us daily in the Eucharist,
Jesus whom we receive in Holy Communion has the power to change us,
transforming our lives into the pattern of his own divine life. Perhaps,
despite of the thousands of communions that we’ve made during our lifetime, we
may be tempted to think that this hasn’t been true in our own life. I still
have the same defects, the same imperfections as before, and there seems to be
no improvement whatsoever, each of us might say. But come to consider what if
we haven’t been receiving all throughout this time, worthily as we could
possibly be; perhaps we could’ve been even worse.
The
spiritual considerations that we’ve made should also allow us to resolve to
make our communions as worthy as possible. We
couldn’t just afford to receive our Lord with hearts that are choked with the
filth of our sins. We cannot receive him if we know that we are in the state of
mortal sin. As such, we should not receive him without first seeking his
mercy in the Sacrament of Penance.
May
Mary our Mother, teach us how to receive her Eucharistic Son with all the care
and love that we could muster in our hearts. AMEN.
Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. |
Let us therefore, adore our God who has humbled Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation.
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