Holy Mary Mother of the Holy Eucharist pray for us, lead us to a deeper love for Your Son, Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist…Use me as your little child to save souls and transform out world. Amen.

John 6; 51-58 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 16th, 2015

As we continue on the teachings of Jesus in the bread of life discourse, today, we have Jesus speaking very plainly to his hearers (and to us) about what He means that He Himself is the Bread from Heaven. There is no other way to take His words but literally, (which is probably why the early Christians got accused of cannibalism). But before we come to what Jesus says, it is good to take a step back and see just how Jesus has prepared his hearers (and us) to hear this message today so that we can accept it fully in faith, with our whole heart, mind, and will.

From the beginning to the end of Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel, we discover Jesus taking it step by step in order to help us to accept and so believe His teaching on the Eucharist. It is as if Jesus is slowly preparing the soil of our mind to receive the seed, which is the disclosure of the Great Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.

The first step is that Jesus lets us know that He alone knows our true hunger and so he multiplies the bread and the fish. Second, Jesus by his miracles shows that He is God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and as such, has power over nature itself; and so, along with the multiplication of the loaves, He walks on water in the midst of a storm. Finally, after preparing us with these two great miracles, Jesus at the synagogue at Capernaum, springs on us “THE MYSTERY OF FAITH” when He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

In all of this step by step teaching, Jesus demonstrates His desire to meet all of our needs- from the most basic—food to keep our bodies alive in this world, to our more important spiritual need—food for our eternal life. By the way, this is food not only to keep our souls alive forever, but also food to glorify our bodies so that they too, like the body of the Virgin Mary, might be with us in heaven as well. Yesterday was the feast of the Bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary…We too, if we believe in the Eucharist, adore Jesus there, trust Him there and love Him there, we too will have a glorified body in heaven.

Jesus incredible teaching on the Holy Eucharist reminds us that our most profound need of all is to be loved by God-to be one with God. We are literally made for God, made for His love, made to love Him in return and serve Him in this life so that we can be happy in this life and in the next by becoming one with Him in a unending union of love. The Eucharist is the gift of the Love of God because it is truly the God who is Love in the flesh. This is the greatest of gifts of the Father to us, because it is the Gift of Jesus Himself. The Holy Eucharist is then the greatest Gift of Love-to us, who receive Him in faith. And we have to receive Him with faith!!! For Happy are those who are called to His supper and attend with faith!!!

As we penetrate the teaching of this Gospel, we discover that Jesus uses the power of His Divinity, not to scare us, but to actually manifest His divine infinite love for us. He wants to show us that nothing can block or inhibit this Love of His from reaching us in, through and with the Holy Eucharist—except if we chose not to believe. Unfortunately, the choice to not to believe, to not take Jesus-God at His Word, is shown by the people in our readings over the past few weeks. By their unbelief they failed to open their hearts and minds to Jesus and to the great gift of Himself offered to us in and through the Holy Eucharist. Last week they murmured, this week they complain by saying Jesus’ words were “Intolerable”.

Jesus today opens His heart of love and shares the great secret, the greatest of all secrets, that Jesus would give His very life for our salvation. He does this by giving us the gift of Himself, of His life in the Holy Eucharist. In John Chapter 6, Jesus foretells His self-offering and sacrifice of His flesh on the cross and at every Holy Mass in order to give it to us to eat for our salvation.

The Bread of Life is indeed His true flesh and blood, His complete self offering to us. His love for us has absolutely no limits. It is in the Holy Eucharist that we, living today, can receive personally Jesus’ gift of His life poured out for us. It is through the Holy Eucharist that we can not only be saved but become one with the entire Blessed Trinity in unending love.

The Holy Eucharist is a true miracle—It is the Miracles of all miracles…for the bread and wine at the words of Consecration are changed physically into the physical reality of Jesus Christ who is now bodily present-the bread no longer exists, only Jesus exists, whole and entire true God and true Man. With the Holy Eucharist, God not only personally has entered into the world, He is still here physically and He desires to enter into us so we might become one with Him-this is the greatest manifestation of God’s love for the world. Now, Love Himself has a direct and immediate, unfathomable intimacy and communion with our hearts…But we on our part have to believe and receive Him worthily by being in the state of grace, free from serious sin and in union with His Mystical Body on earth, the Catholic Church and Her teachings.

The Holy Eucharist is the only answer for our modern day troubles, It is the only answer to the deepest desires of our Heart, for it is not a It at all, but a Him, THE HIM, Jesus Christ our Lord and our God, who is the only savior of the world and so the only answer to the human condition. If we want to Change our world for the better we must adore the Holy Eucharist as the True and Living God physically among us in the flesh. “Without adoration there is no transformation (Cardinal Ratzinger).” In fact, our world is only transformed to the extent that we Catholics allow Jesus in the Holy Eucharist to transform us. And we can only be transformed to the extent that we offer our whole selves in response to the God who offers His whole to us in the Holy Eucharist. This is what the Holy Mass really is, the unique place for an exchange of Hearts…Where God offers anew His Sacred Heart to us and we in order to become one with Him offer our hearts to Him-the two hearts then can become One—the human with the Divine.

Let us end by always remembering that an age prospers or dwindles in proportion to its, faith in, hope in and love for to the Holy Eucharist.

O My God I believe in thee in the Holy Eucharist, I adore thee in the Holy Eucharist and I love thee in the Holy Eucharist. Please help my lack of believe, lack of adoration, lack of trust and lack of love as I beg pardon for those who do not believe, adore, hope and love thee in the Holy Eucharist. Amen…Holy Mary Mother of the Holy Eucharist pray for us, lead us to a deeper love for Your Son, Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist…Use me as your little child to save souls and transform out world. Amen.