Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Eucharist sustains our body and our soul. Many saints have existed only eating the Host for months and even years. For Blessed Alexandrina from Portugal, who ate only the Eucharist for thirteen years. During that time, she spent more than a month in a hospital being checked out by specialists, they found her to be fully satiated. Her body was not lacking food or water. Amazing!
As we heard last week, we, like the boy in the gospel, can offer God very little, only a few loaves of bread and some fish, yet when we are filled with Christ, we can feed others. Work, family, friends, money, affection cannot fill us, and even when we have them, we want more, and more, and more. A Christian can only be filled with Christ. Otherwise, we become beggars looking for love and affection. The manna, the earthly bread, turns sour; it cannot fill us. Jesus says, I Am the Bread of Life, with me you will never hunger or thirst. If only we believed this.
How can you save your spouse or neighbor who never goes to church, who would never listen to a priest? You can only do this if you are filled with Christ, only if you allow him to eat, and eat, and eat, and take, and take…When you don’t have Jesus Christ within, this becomes impossible. Love is to die for the other, which is humanly impossible for us. But when we are filled with God, to give ourselves for the other become something beautiful. We know it does not come from us, but from the Spirit of God. Let us ask for this always in our prayer.