To someone outside the Catholic Church, our reverence for the Eucharist can seem odd. As Catholics, we believe the bread and wine offered at mass become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. They aren’t merely a symbol of Jesus, or the presence of Jesus within them, but Jesus Himself.
The creator of the universe wants to be food for your earthly journey, and offers nothing less than Himself to fill every cell of our being, figuratively and spiritually.
Why do we believe this so fervently, to the point where we call the Eucharist the source and summit of our faith? Listen to August 12th’s gospel reading from Saint John as Jesus speaks with a crowd that had just seen Him feed 5000 people with a few fish loaves of bread:
“I am the bread of life. You ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Let’s pray. Father of Grace and Mercy – you give us nothing less than yourself in the Holy Eucharist. Stir in our hearts a passion for this profound mystery as you seek to enter into us through the bread and wine at each and every mass.
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