In this month of August, we get to hear Jesus’ teaching on the Bread of Life. The unfortunate part is that we hear this chapter of John’s Gospel known as the ‘Bread of Life Discourse’ over several weeks. While this may be better for the realities of our culture’s attention span, it takes away some of the power over the message because we don’t hear it at one time to notice the building of Jesus’ statements. Throughout this chapter Jesus says over and over to his disciples that He is “the Bread of Life,” that we must “eat of His flesh and drink of His Blood” in order to have eternal life. I have always been struck by the power of the translation from the original Hebrew: “Unless you gnaw on my flesh and gulp down my blood.” It is at this statement both then and now where people walk away from Him and say “this saying is hard.” Yes, it is hard. It is difficult for our human minds to comprehend that Jesus was saying what He meant to say and not a metaphor for what He was trying to say. Many prominent teachers of our Catholic faith have said in response, “this is the moment when Jesus could have said, no, you misunderstood me. I didn’t mean literal body and blood,” but He didn’t. Instead, He turned to his apostles and said, “Do you also want to leave?” Peter answered for the other apostles, and for us as Roman Catholic Christians today, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.”
As Catholics, we have chosen to accept this teaching as fact, but surveys have shown that nearly 80% of people who claim to be Catholic do not believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Due to this overwhelming statistic, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) started a Eucharistic Revival movement in 2021. I encourage you to watch some of the events and talks from the National Eucharistic Congress on EWTN and attend our testimony weekend on 8/17 immediately following the Saturday Mass at St Isidore and St Therese or after the last morning Mass on Sunday 8/18 at St Isidore and St Therese.
So why is the Eucharist so important? We believe that when we receive the Eucharist, that by the power of the Holy Spirit through the prayers of the priest, the bread and wine that were offered have now fully become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. We DO NOT believe this is a symbol of Jesus, but that it is, in fact, Him. The God who made the universe, the God who made you, the God who made me has given Himself to us as spiritual nourishment. We come to Him out of reverence, we receive Him out of necessity. Our beings, souls, minds, all of us NEED Him. Through Him we are capable of Hope, Love, Compassion. Through Him we can show the world His Love and His everlasting Mercy. The Eucharist can heal us, sustain us, revive us, but most of all, it can save us. I saw someone wearing a shirt at the National Euchasristic Congress that really brought this home for me, and it simply said, “Eucharist: Learn it. Love it. Live it.” Imagine what we would be capable of if we completely surrendered to the faith of Jesus’ real presence, if we spent more time with Him in Adoration, if we received Him more reverently at Mass. Imagine the vessels of love, compassion and mercy we could be. I want that for me so much, but worldly distractions are difficult temptations to overcome. It’s a daily struggle and I do not foresee an easy release of them, but I know that the more I am around Jesus, the more at peace I am. My stresses lessen, my self worth improves and I feel loved and at peace in ways that I cannot feel elsewhere. Trust me, I have looked.
The Eucharist is so important because it is Jesus. We get to touch God and consume Him every time we come to Mass. When we fully come to grasp this concept, our lives are changed forever. So I will ask you the same question you will hear from the Gospel of John in a few weeks. “Do you also want to leave?” My hope is that your response is that of Peter’s, “Master…You have the words of everlasting life.”
Stay tuned for events to help you learn more about the Eucharist.