Eucharist

In the Gospel of John, Jesus begins to introduce the Eucharist when He says, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (Jn 6:27)  He goes on to call Himself “the bread of life” (Jn 6:35) and “the living bread that came down from Heaven” (Jn 6:51).  He is setting out to reveal the gift He will ultimately leave to us.  So, when we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion, we are to believe that it is truly His Body and Blood that we receive, not a mere symbolic representation. This is referred to as the Real Presence of Jesus Christ. 
 
If we do not believe or understand what we are receiving, we must listen to what Jesus said as He prepared His disciples to grasp this very reality.  In John, chapter 6, we will learn that Jesus not only describes this as His real body and blood, as He states in v. 55 “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” but that we are promised everlasting life through receiving Him in this way, as stated in v. 54 “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day”.  He went so far as to say that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” (Jn 6:53) This was hard to grasp, and some murmured and He asked, “Does this shock you?” (Jn 6:61).  Many just couldn’t grasp it or accept it and the gospel writer tells us that many “returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66). 
 
Jesus took on the flesh of man and dwelt among us, as it says in Jn 1:14.  And when He left us, He commissioned the apostles to make His flesh and blood present to us in this tangible bread and wine in this most holy sacrament of the Eucharist. We can receive Him at every mass, daily if we wish. We are to receive Him with the proper disposition, being in a state of grace as St. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 11:27-28 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.  A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.”  So, if we find ourselves attached to sin or in a state of mortal sin, we must avail ourselves of sacramental confession wherein Jesus, through the priest, will enable us to be fully prepared to live in that divine intimacy which we are called to share in this great sacrament of the Eucharist. Receiving Jesus while in a state of grace draws us closer to His heart and enables us to live in union with Him. 

Since the Eucharist is reserved in a tabernacle in our churches, we can also encounter our Lord in a different manner outside of the mass.  We can sit at the feet of our Lord, who is really and truly present in the hosts that are reserved within the tabernacle. This encounter puts us in close spiritual communion and enables us to open the door of our heart to Him in prayer while so very near to Him.  This dwelling together can draw us even closer to the Lord as we allow Him to speak to us in our inmost being.  We may also encounter Jesus in this way in the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, when we are able to adore Him in a “face-to-face” encounter as we look upon the very real flesh and blood of Jesus with the eyes of faith in the Eucharist.