My grandson’s favorite meals are in this order –
pizza, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers. He loves French fries but not with
ketchup instead ranch dressing. These are not really the best foods for you and
probably not a diet that adults should follow.
But there is one meal that each and every believer should
eat. This meal is the body and blood of Christ found under the species of bread
and wine in the Eucharist. Jesus left us a true meal, Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…
Many Christians think these words of Jesus are a
metaphor. He didn't really mean it. It was symbolic words he used to make a
point. He really didn’t mean eat his body and drink his blood.
There are Catholics that think the same thing. They don’t
understand that the bread and wine is changed by the Holy Spirit. They find it
hard to believe in the miracle of transubstantiation; the miracle of the bread
and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ.
Still, ask a Christian “Do they believe in Jesus’ miracles?”
They’ll
say yes we believe. We believe the Bible.
· He healed the leper, Lord if you choose, you can
make me clean. Jesus touched his hand and said I so choose.
· He raised the dead, He told the Jarius’ daughter
“Get up little girl!” He commanded Lazarus to “Come out” of the tomb.
· He cast out demons, because even demons know his
name.
· He walked on water, he multiplied and loaves and
fishes and fed thousands.
· And, they believe He suffered, died, and was buried only
to rise again on the 3rd day.
They believe these miracles. They recognize them as gifts
from heaven. Miracles that sustain belief like the manna from heaven and the water
from rock which sustained the Israelites.
The miracles of Jesus are the manna He called down
from heaven; the bread that changes disbelief to belief; water from the rock
that sustains in us the promise of God’s love, God’s word, and God’s grace. Jesus
is the manna from heaven and tells us in these words - I am
the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this
bread will live forever
The one miracle Christians have problem believing is
the miracle of the Eucharist. It is the miracle of our manna from heaven and
our water from rock, the body and blood of Christ.
It was a miracle they could not believe when Jesus
first spoke of it and one many cannot believe today. The Jews quarreled among
themselves just as believers today disagree, how can He give us his
flesh to eat?
Because they dispute this, the
true body and blood of Christ is a food unknown to many. Some
cannot believe Jesus’ words - 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.
When He said this, it offended many;
they found it difficult. Many turned back and did not follow this teaching.
It is the same thing
today. People don’t believe in the miracle of the altar. People leave the true Eucharist. They leave the promise of Jesus, Whoever eats my flesh and
drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
It doesn’t fit their
point of view. They don’t like the reference points, the morality, what is
right and what is wrong, the admittance of sin, or having to answer to someone
other than themselves.
Many are going to
be disappointed when they find out God doesn’t need us as a reference point. God is God’s own reference point. God is true to God.
That is why Jesus said - the
one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
With Jesus words and the writings of the evangelist and
apostles, there is still a failure to believe in the presence of Christ in the
Eucharist, in the fact that it is His body and His blood. Instead of believing
our Lord, we believe our selves. That’s a shame.
Even though people fail to believe Jesus’ own testimony,
He still loves us. God still loves each and every one of us; because, His love is
Divine Love. And Divine Love is not generated by our worthiness but by the
total generosity of the God.
That is the secret of the Eucharist. It is the mystery
of generosity of divine love of God by sharing in the body and blood of Christ.
God so loves us that He gives himself to us over and over and over again in the
sacrament of the altar.
About eating his body and drinking his blood, do you
believe in miracles?
It brings us out of that place of slavery to
this world. It is the manna
that sustains us.
For some, pizza, chicken nuggets,
and hamburgers are good food. For some grape juice and soda crackers in a
plastic cup are a metaphor, a symbolic meal of the body and blood of Christ. It
is not true food and it leaves you hungry.
The cup and bread that is blessed by
the priest at the altar of God becomes the cup of blessing, the participation
in the blood of Christ; the bread we break, becomes the participation in the body of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, true food and
true drink are the body and blood of Christ at the Eucharist table. We should never be afflicted with a hunger
for God. Christ
who gives his Divine Love to us in the Eucharist is always there for that hunger.
Do you believe in miracles?
Yall be good, yall be holy and
preach the gospel by the way you live and love. Amen.
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