Dear Brothers and Sisters,
There are breads that give life and there are breads that don’t. They don’t fill us nor give us life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert, but they died; it did not give them life. It was a sign, a figure, that would prepare them for the true bread, as we ask in the Our Father, the daily (the supersubstantial) bread, which is Christ himself. We need him everyday.
When you have Christ you are not going to look for other breads. What are the other breads? One is money, another is vanity. We are all vain. We put our image above many things and we don’t want anyone to think badly of us. A third bread is affections and how often we look for this love? Without being too obvious, we say: love me, love me, care for me, think about me!
I don’t know if you try to eat one of these breads or all three of them, thinking they will give you life. It’s true that they will give you some joy, to have money, who doesn’t like that. To be well spoken of, to have people love you is normal, but to expect life from them. They cannot. It is impossible. When there is an experience of death, they will not help you.
What are these events of death? You suffer an injustice. Your son is killed, your spouse is unfaithful, you get a serious sickness. These events destroy us and all the money or affections in the world doesn’t help. Walter White in Breaking Bad at one point in the series sees that he has a lot of money but he can’t spend it because it would attract too much attention and he lost his family. He ‘earned’ the money from making meth but it doesn’t give him or anyone else life.
Only the true bread will give you life in situations of death. Jesus says, I am the Bread of Life. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. This can be a perfect union between Him and you. This union is deeper than sexual intercourse when a couple becomes one flesh. To be one flesh with Christ, you need to eat his flesh and drink his blood. This refers to the Eucharist.
I would not change his words! If you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Where can you do this? In the Eucharist, in the sacraments. Today you can have true life. The Eucharist gives you this possibility. You can have life in the midst of cancer or old age or any situation.
We all have our own weaknesses, our own serious sins. Here there might be some adulterers, also some thieves here, murderers, even of their own child in the womb. There’s probably some gossipers, some who cannot forgive. The Lord invites you to this banquet and tells you to eat my flesh and drink my blood.
Pope Francis uses a phrase that I like a lot. The Eucharist is not for the perfect ones or none of us would receive. It is for the poor ones. I am not saying that everyone should receive, no. If you have some serious sin, go first to confess to a priest. If you don’t receive Christ, could it be that you want to keep sinning? The true remedy is the forgiveness of sins.
All of us need to convert. The devil wants you to think that you are very good. You do all things well. You are an honest person and educated and you don’t hurt anyone. An old lady used to say to a priest friend of mine: I neither smoke or drink and at 80 years of age I don’t sleep around so I am very good. Please give me the absolution. But if she didn’t confess any sins how could he give her absolution, which is the forgiveness of sins?
The world is in desperate need of good news, just read the papers or watch the news on TV. The gospel is giving us a the secret to eternal life and it’s not money or health or a different spouse. Only the one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Christ will have eternal life. But to bring this good news to others you need first to experience it. You cannot give what you don’t have. And where can you get this eternal life? Only in the Church.
So then everyone who receives the Body and Blood of Christ has eternal life? I doubt it. You can easily tell by how they treat others, especially their spouse or kids or parents. Is there a deep resentment or a fear or anxiety? If you had eternal life, you would be at peace with all the sufferings of your life. Eating Christ’s flesh means you are in communion with him, which means you can be one with him on the cross. To drink his blood is to share in the resurrection. We eat his flesh when we enter the cross. In that particular suffering, you are eating the body of Christ. If you don’t accept that cross, if you find it absolutely horrible, you are not eating him. When you do accept it, you are content and you can experience eternal life. When you enter into your suffering, you will meet Jesus Christ and experience this new life.
At Cana, Mary says they have no wine, which is a sign of a feast and of joy. We lack wine if there is no feast in our lives. So Mary tells the waiters: do whatever he tells you. To have a feast, you need to experience this resurrection, joy in the midst of a great suffering. A Christian cannot be someone with a long face.
Life has two different words in Greek. Normal, earthly life is called bios. Zoe is eternal life. The Eucharist changes bios into zoe, eternal life. The bread is my bread, Jesus says. He doesn’t say it is a sign of my flesh. But if it was actual flesh, we would be disgusted by it. The Lord gives us this mystical food which is more suitable to our minds.
With the manna the people could only pick up what they needed for the day. And on Friday they could pick up for that day and for the Sabbath. This would depend on the size of their family and number of guests, etc. God works the same way with us know. If you have a large family or a group that depends on you, then you can take as much grace as you need. God is not stingy. And he always provides for you, no matter what happens.