“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” How beautifully Christ reveals his offering of salvation to us in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Hearing these and other words of Sacred Scripture that put salvation in terms of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, the Church has always held the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith. Jesus Christ himself made it so, telling us to “do this in remembrance of me!”
The Catholic Church in the United States launched a national Eucharistic Revival early last summer on the Feast of the Body and Blood of Our Lord. The revival is a call to Catholics to renew their faith through a deeper commitment and devotion to encountering the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Our world is sick and troubled in so many ways. We have become weak and worn out. So many people live without the light of faith. And so many Catholics are not receiving the greatest source of strength and the most perfect medicine: the Body of Christ.
In June of 2023, our parish will join in the local phase of the revival. From the Gospels, we know that any authentic encounter with Jesus Christ is an occasion of conversion. In encountering Christ, we are invited to follow him on the path to righteousness by turning away from all that leads us away from God. Metanoia, or change of heart or mind is what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in us when we truly listen to and accept the Good News. The parish phase of the revival will assist in bringing about a true Eucharistic conversion to a deeper faith in Christ’s presence.
How many times have you heard the expression “You don’t even know what you are missing?” In many respects, that can be a good description of the attitude of so many toward the Mass. So that we can better understand the Eucharist and the celebration of the Holy Mass, the Worship Commission has ordered copies of A Minute in Church: The Mass by Gus Lloyd. This book is a collection of 52 minute long reflections on the Eucharist and the celebration of the Mass.
Each family that attends Easter Sunday Masses is welcomed to take home a copy. Remaining copies will stay in Church in the book holders so that people can continue to use this resource to grow in a deeper appreciation of the Eucharist by learning more about its parts and its substance.
Today, we celebrate the greatest mystery of our faith: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As Paul reminds us, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain.” Unlike the culture around us flourishing the bunnies, the eggs, and the candy, resurrection is not something we celebrate just once a year. Each Sunday, the Church gathers on the Lord’s Day, the Day of Resurrection, so that we can be renewed in our faith. Each time we gather and celebrate the Eucharist, we proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the Eucharistic communion, the Church has always most perfectly encountered the Risen Lord.
Therefore the measure of our faith in the resurrection is how faithful we are to joining in with the community in celebrating the Mass. Recently a parishioner shared with me her own story of how she learned what the Eucharist was about. During the challenging days as the Mass appeared so different in the transition from the former Latin rite to the new rite in English, grandma was asked to explain how she managed the transition from what was so familiar to something quite different and new. “God did not make me a leader in the Church. So long as Jesus is still Jesus in Communion, I’m OK.”
A true understanding of the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ is fundamentally true faith in the resurrection of Christ. Christ didn’t rise to go away. Christ rose in his glorified body so that he could remain with us always, until the end of the world. This is the Catholic difference. Other Christian communities of Protestant origins certainly hold to the truth of the resurrection but miss the sacramental encounter with the Risen Christ. I always find it fascinating that with such an emphasis on the literal meaning of the Bible, passages that are obviously about the Eucharistic Presence are read figuratively.
Note Paul’s handing on the tradition of the Eucharist in the early decades of the Church: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” [1 Cor 11:23-25.] This is my body—this is my body broken and sacrificed. This is my body—risen and glorified. This is my body—take and eat.
Our participation in the Eucharist is not only a sign of our belief in the resurrection, it is the means by which we are fed the food of eternal life. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.” Without the vital nourishment we receive in Holy Communion, we will not have the strength to make it to heaven. Christ invites us to become the food we consume. Having fed on the bread of life, we have the sustenance to make it on the journey to heaven.
I’ll conclude with a meditation on this image of the food of heaven. For many years I have had the dream of keeping bees. It all started when I was in Vienna and lived next to the church. There was a colony of bees that lived in the tall bell tower of the church. Each year it would cast off a couple healthy swarms of bees. I’d watch them bivouac for a few hours on a large tulip poplar nearby, but I was never ready to capture the swarm.
My final year in Vienna, we had planned a major renovation of the church stained glass windows and for sandblasting and tuck pointing the church. I had many bee keepers come out to check to see if they could cut out the swarm, but the bees were so deep in between the massive concrete block exterior and interior concrete walls that it was too difficult to remove them without structural damage. The exterminators were called so that the contractors could do their work.
I felt bad about destroying that colony of bees. I started reading books about beekeeping. I watched countless videos on YouTube about bees and beekeeping. I put a swarm trap up at my farm, with no success. This year I finally decided to pull the trigger and get the equipment needed to keep bees. I connected with some local beekeepers, including some of our parishioners, and strategized on how to procure my first colony of bees and where to keep them.
One thing you learn about in beekeeping is the importance of bee food. It’s where we have developed this symbiotic relationship with bees over the millennia. We both want that sweet honey! Nurse bees take nectar and pollen stores and turn that into food for the developing larvae. One larva gets a special cell dedicated to it and is given a large amount more of the royal jelly. That larva will develop into a queen, and the colony will therefore continue to reproduce.
I’ve found it fascinating that the food the developing larva consumes makes such a radical transformation in its physiology. All bees get fed royal jelly, but it is only the one that gets the correct amount who will be able to continue the life of the colony.
That is really the nature of all food. We literally become what we eat, because that’s how nourishment works. That’s how we survive. It’s why good nutrition is so essential for the young of all living things.
The greatest gift we have is life. We cherish it in ourselves and honor it in others. Jesus Christ gives us the food that enables the life he has given us to last forever. Today as we celebrate the gift of new life in Christ through the power of the resurrection, let us recommit to participating in the Holy Eucharist, the celebration of abundant life, and life that endures forever.