The Bread of Life

Saint Anne Church - June 1, 1997

Today we celebrate with joy the wonderful gift Jesus made to us in the Holy Eucharist. The focus of today's celebration is not on the sacrifice of the Mass, but on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. In this sacrament, he comes to live in us so that his life may become our life.

As Jesus declares in the Gospel: "I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he shall live forever ...and I will raise him up on the last day."

In the Sacraments he instituted, Jesus takes things we use in our daily life and makes them signs of spiritual realities.

Why, in the Holy Eucharist, did Jesus take bread and wine? To signify how intimately he wants to become part of our own life. Just as food becomes part of our flesh and blood, likewise, in Holy Communion, Jesus wants us to understand that spiritually he becomes our flesh and blood. He becomes me and you. He lives in us and we in him. We become one with him in a real sense.

That is precisely what makes us Christians: Jesus living in us. St. Paul caught the idea and expressed it beautifully in his letter to the Galatians, Ch. 2, v. 20: "The life I live is not my own: it is Christ living in me." In a similar vein he says in Philippians Ch. 1, v. 21: "For me life means Christ." To be a Christian is to be Christ, in the sense that we live for him, and we live by him. He is our life. Let me explain.

A Christian is one who has been joined with Christ in Baptism. His life becomes our life. Like the Vine and the Branches, as Jesus says. And Paul expresses the same idea using a different metaphor: We are the Body of Christ, he is the Head. One and the same life flows from the vine into the branches, and throughout the head and the body.

That's how intimately we become one with Christ in Baptism. We used to call Baptism "Christening" to signify how Baptism made us one with Christ. In a sense, we become Christ. Our life is his life in us. "Acknowledge, O Christian, your dignity" (Pope St. Leo the Great).

That life of Christ in us is nourished and grows through the reception of the Eucharist. "My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink." These words of Jesus became clearer at the Last Supper when he said to his Apostles: "Take and eat. this is my body. Take and drink. this is my blood."

Now, if you look at the bread of the Eucharist, it doesn't look like Jesus, does it? But neither did the man Jesus look like God. We know that God is a pure spirit and no one can see him. He has no body. The Son of God took a human body so as to be for us a visible sign of the invisible God present in him.

Likewise, the bread and wine in the Eucharist do not look like Jesus. They are visible signs of his invisible presence. However, Jesus, the Son of God, is truly present in the bread and wine. And so we honor him as God in person.

This is a great mystery we cannot understand. Let me try with poor human words however, to explain what we are talking about.

God, who is a pure spirit, invisible, took unto himself a human nature with a human body and soul. Now, in Jesus there is only one person, the 2nd Person of God. That's why we adore Jesus, because he is truly God the 2nd Person, who has taken unto himself a human form, a human nature.

Now Jesus who is God and man, is no longer visible to us, since he returned to heaven. That is why he took another form in which he could be seen: the form of bread. Of course, bread does not look like Jesus, no more than Jesus looks like God, who is a pure spirit (no body). But under the species of bread, Jesus is present, the 2nd person of God, God the Son. In this sacrament, God took the appearance of food so that we might understand that he is food for our soul, sharing his divine life with us. Just as in the Incarnation God the Son became man so as to make us understand how he shares human life with us. He enters into our own life and history by becoming one of us.

He also enters our personal life in a real way as we receive him in this sacrament of bread and wine, the sacrament of Holy Communion, the sacrament of his union with us.

With what joy we should receive Jesus in Holy Communion! With what faith and devotion! Recognizing in this Sacrament the person of Jesus, the 2nd divine person, who comes to us. He comes not to give us something, like Sanctifying Grace, but himself, his body and blood, but also his divine nature, so as to transform us more and more into himself.

Encourage coming to Perpetual Adoration. Spend time in communion of heart with Jesus really present in the Blessed Sacrament. A wonderful devotion that has been spreading all over in our country and has been a source of great blessings .This devotion has been in certain parts of the country a source of abundant vocations to the priesthood, something we all need right now. Please come: one hour a week with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. People come to keep company with our Lord everyday, 24 hours a day. There is a great need right now for generous people who can spend night hours. If you can, please consider this.

Sermons on the Eucharist Index