by Joe Cady
In the very first pages of scripture, we learn not only that God has given us the gift of life by creating us, but that he intends for us to have life perpetually, symbolized by our access to the Tree of Life in the garden. During his public ministry, Jesus once said, “I came so that you might have life, and life in abundance.” Or, as we hear in the most often quoted verse of the Bible, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” And then, in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
A fundamental truth of the Gospel is that God wants life for us. He created us for life, and even when our lives turn away from what is good, beautiful, and true, God continually calls us back to himself, so that we might once again have access to the life he created us for. God has made us for life! And this life is Jesus Christ. When we remain close to Jesus, through faith, fidelity to the Gospel, and the sacraments of the Church, the life of the Eternal God comes to truly dwell in us.
You see, Jesus doesn’t just “accomplish” or “achieve” our salvation… he IS salvation. He is, in his very person, the union of humanity and divinity. He is the fullness of holiness and redeemed life. He is perfect fidelity to the way of life, truth, and goodness. He is love of God and love of neighbor in its most perfect form. In Jesus we not only see God’s great love for man, but also what man’s love for God and neighbor ought to look like. Therefore, when we unite our lives to Jesus, we enter into life itself. When we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we come to share in the eternal life of God.
But here’s the beautiful thing, in the Eucharist Jesus has given us a way to enter into the mystery of this life-giving union in a profoundly tangible way. Receiving communion is both a sign and an instrument of our union with Christ – it gives expression to this union AND it actually brings it about. Which is why Jesus can say, “whoever eats this bread will live forever.” But… it’s not magic! It’s not as if all we have to do is find ourselves a consecrated host to eat and then, “poof!” we’re automatically saved. No, the sacraments are always “sacraments of faith.” While Christ is present in the Eucharist regardless of what we believe or how we live, in order for the life of Christ to be truly effective and fruitful in those who receive the Eucharist, it must be received from a posture of faith and an inner disposition of fidelity. St. Augustine put it this way: when Jesus said, “He who eats this bread will not die” he means “the man who eats what belongs to the virtue of the sacrament, not the visible sacrament; who eats inwardly, not outwardly; the man who eats the sacrament in the heart” (Homily on the Gospel of John). St. Augustine isn’t trivializing the sacramental realism of the Eucharist, but he is saying that unless our outward reception of the Eucharist is coupled with an interior receptivity of Christ, it can’t give the life God wants us to receive. But, as the Catechism says, “Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify” (CCC 1127). When our hearts and minds are in a position of receptivity and acceptance of Jesus and the Gospel, the Eucharist is truly life-giving and fruitful.
How? Well, the Catechism says, “What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life” (CCC 1392). Just as ordinary food
provides us with the strength and nourishment we need to fulfill all the ordinary tasks of life, so also the Eucharist provides us with true sustenance in the spiritual life – giving us a supernatural power to follow Jesus and bear witness to the Gospel. Likewise, just as without regular food we will eventually run out of stamina and strength, if we fail to remain close to Jesus our lives will gradually lose their spiritual power and vitality. But, on the other hand, if we make our relationship with Jesus Christ the center of our lives, seeking always to listen to him, follow him, and trust in him (through both faith and the reception of the eucharist), then we will truly have eternal life. As Jesus said, “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”
But, the fruitfulness of receiving communion doesn’t stop there. Just as ordinary food sustains our life so that we can go out and live and move and act in the world, so also the Eucharist gives us the spiritual strength to go forth proclaiming the Gospel and building the kingdom of God. Meaning, the life-giving power of the Eucharist doesn’t end in us, it’s meant to flow through us out into the world. Just as Jesus gave up his life to give life to the world, so too our reception of communion makes us co-workers with Christ, calling us to make our lives an offering for the restoration and salvation of the world. This is the ultimate embodiment of the saying, “you are what you eat” – except in this instance, it’s a call and an invitation… become what you eat! Become Christ, who came to give us life; become Christ, who through his poverty has made us rich; become Christ who came to serve and give his life for others. As John Paul II once said, “It is not by chance that the Gospel of John contains no account of the institution of the Eucharist, but instead relates the ‘washing of feet’: by bending down to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the Eucharist unequivocally” (On The Year of the Eucharist, 28). Our participation in the life of the Church makes us co-workers with Christ, making his mission our own mission, so that just as the Father sent his Son into the world to give us life, Jesus sends us into the world to be ambassadors of that life and instruments of his grace. Therefore, let us allow the Eucharist to truly transform our lives and inform our way of living in the world.