IntroductionPeople throughout the world gather for mass. People from different personalities, culture and ethnic groups in the mass are a sign that Jesus is drawing people together, bringing them closer to God and to each other. We take part in the Eucharist to give thanks to God, and share this meal as a community. In community, we gain strength from each one who has gathered. Without the Eucharist we cannot be effective as a church, for cut off from Christ we can do nothing. Jesus’ love for us is overflowing. He continuously offers Himself to us to nourish us and to be in communion with one another. When we eat His flesh and drink His blood in the Eucharist, we are in spiritual union with Christ and with one another. What is concentrated and given to us in the sacrifice and sacrament of the Eucharist is the divine-human love of our God. And it renews the real presence of the Trinity in us in a graphic and palpable way. (VD Statutes #221) Our life revolves around the tabernacle. The day giving turn to the night and the night to the day is a continual succession of loving moments with Jesus in the Eucharist. Not for anything in the world would we want to lose or not to take advantage of this right: His great friendship. The decision and initiative of Jesus belongs to us, and nothing and nobody can prevent or take it away from us. Together with the biblical author, we can say, “I found the love of my life, I held Him and would not let Him go… my lover is mine and I am His.” (VD Statutes#223) MondayThe Eucharist as a Meal The person of Christ – Sacrament of the Father, His flesh and blood converted to bread and wine- is the proper food which Jesus particularly has wanted to take care of the divine life of all men, one by one, until the end of the centuries. (VD Statutes#222) And Jesus sent Peter and John saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat”. (Luke 22:8) While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body”. (Matthew 26: 26) Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. (1Corinthians: 11:27) The consecration of the bread and wine is not that Jesus merely presents in the altar; but that He is present as food. The bread and wine that turned into body and blood of Jesus remains the same in its physical appearance but there is a change in its substance. That is why we need to handle and eat it with fragility. Sometimes we doubt about this truth but with God nothing is impossible and no one can fathom the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus offers His body in the Eucharist as our spiritual food and drink. He nourishes our spirit. This is how Jesus is taking care of us. Do you believe that it is the body of Jesus that we receive in the Holy Mass? Or do we just consider it as a mere symbolic sacrifice? TuesdayEucharist as the Real Presence of Christ |
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