FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2024
FRIDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF EASTER B
Acts 9:1-20
John 6:52-59
THE HOLY EUCHARIST: OUR SOURCE OF LIFE AND COMMUNION WITH GOD.
The tenacity, seriousness and insistence of Jesus to the people receiving and eating the Eucharist, his body and drinking his blood becomes so strong in today’s gospel. It turned out that failure to eat the bread and drink his blood has the consequence of cutting one from the life of Christ.
This insistence of Jesus point to great importance of this doctrine.
That the people were more confused is seen from their reaction. This for them is a hard teaching, indeed a hard saying and hard nut to crack. They were becoming uncomfortable with this teaching and their hunger for the mere bread they had sought for initially waned to the point that they accused Jesus of inciting them into cannibalism and many of them left him.
Yet, Jesus never withdrew this teaching rather he continued unperturbed by their rejection of him. And Jesus would have equally lost his disciples but their loyalty to Jesus in the midst of this confusing doctrine held them back.
Jesus’ saying was and is still strong. “unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.” This is the core of the entire teaching.
First, he makes it clear that the bread is real food and the blood real drink. And it must be eaten by anyone who desires to belong to him. Without eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ, one is by that fact separated from the life of Christ. So the Eucharist as food, binds us to Christ. It assured our belongingness to the body of Christ. The great value, spiritual importance and necessity of the Eucharist is that it enhances our communion and membership of the Christian community. It is a source of our union with Jesus and our union with the Christian community. And it has continued to served such role.
We gather to celebrate as one community and our celebration of the Eucharist brings us together, binds our spirits and enhances communion among ourselves.
This is the communion we also see today in the first reading, in which the narrative is the conversion of Saul on his road to Damascus. Saul a great persecutor of the Church, who had before now supervised the killing of Stephen, and others. He had arrested the brothers who proclaimed the faith. But this time, he had set out to continue his onslaught in Damascus and beyond with the authority of the leaders. And here, God called him.
His conversion though miraculous and as said, he had been the chosen instrument of God. But the great input is that he was to be admitted into communion in the companion of the apostles and disciples of Jesus. His admission was resisted by Ananias until he was convinced of God’s intentions.
After Ananias visited Saul and prayed over him to receive his sight back, he also had Saul baptized and with it was admitted into the brotherhood snd community of the apostles and the disciples of Jesus.
To maintain our brotherhood and communion which builds us up in faith, impacts on us the life of virtue, we must receive the body and blood of Christ. The teaching is that maintenance of communion that prepares us for eternal life is sustained by the reception and communion in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
We must never abandon, forsake or belittle the great value of the Eucharistic mystery in maintaining communion with Christ and the church, in preparing us for the virtuous life and ultimately for the glory of eternal life.
Heavenly Father, grant that we may continually understand that the Eucharist helps us maintain communion and union with you and the Christian community. It helps us too to maintain the life of virtue, and prepare us for eternal happiness. May we always reverence, adore and receive this source of our salvation daily and as opportunity offers us. May our lives be enliven by these receptions and grant that we may continually grow in the spirit through Christ our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
