“My flesh is truly food and My blood is truly drink.” You hear Him speak of His flesh, you hear Him speak of His blood, you know the sacred signs of the Lord's death; and do you worry about His divinity? Hear His words when he says: “A spirit has not flesh and bones.” As often as we receive the sacramental elements which through the mystery of the sacred prayer are transformed into the flesh and blood of the Lord, we proclaim the death of the Lord. (The Faith 4:10:124) “He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created.” Shall not the word of Christ, which was able to make out of nothing that which was not, be able to change things which already are into what they were not? For it is not less to give a new nature to things than to change them. (The Mysteries, par. 52) For many people including some catholics it is hard to grasp that the Eucharist is truly Jesus’ flesh and blood and I thought St. Ambrose put it very well.
The Eucharist beyond measure is a precious gift. St. John Vianney once said “There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us.”
Let us never forget that Jesus Christ is really and truly present; Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity as True God and true man in His Resurrected Glory in the Eucharist. The Son of God gave us the precious gift of Himself hidden in the form of simple bread and wine. It is not a symbol, Jesus Christ really becomes present to us hidden in a tiny white host right before our eyes during the consecration beheld in the hands of the priest.
It is the Jesus in the Eucharist who gives us eternal life. By eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood we receive a taste of heaven on earth, which leads us to the eternal Kingdom. It is only in the Catholic Church where we can receive this treasure; “the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6:68)
Despite the challenges and difficulties we are facing in life, we can still be grateful for the Eucharist because it is our connection to our Lord. We cannot get any closer in this world to Him but by receiving His gift. Our Amen should be proclaimed loudly every time. When we say Amen, we say I believe!
Let us receive the Eucharist in a worthy manner not mistreating the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Remember our hands are like our mother Mary when she held her son when he was first born; when she cradled him after they brought him down from the cross. He is our gift - always.
God bless,
Deacon Mike
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