Posted on agosto 16, 2024 View all Gospel Reflection
«Are you full yet?»
A good host wants to make sure that their guests have enough to eat and drink. As I have seen many
times in Hispanic, Italian and Filipino families, you can never have enough food. When planning, most
times they hear that 40 are coming, plan for 50 and cook for 60 (just in case). Then after everything is
finished, if you don’t take some food to go the host wonders if you liked their cooking at all….!
Jesus also wants us to be filled with the food that he has prepared for us. In these past few Sundays we
have been focusing on the Bread of Life. As Jesus said, «my flesh is true food, and my blood is true
drink.»
So what better food to have than the one that Jesus has prepared for us. It is even more important to
see that Jesus gives us this food so that we can be united to Him. «Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood remains in me and I in him.» He recalls the bread that came down from heaven. The manna in the
desert that God the Father provided as food for the Israelites as they were delivered from slavery in
Egypt. But those who ate that bread, as magnificent as it was, still died.
Interestingly, as Jesus reveals this to his disciples and followers, many quarreled among themselves
saying «How can this man give us his flesh to eat?» What they did not expect is that by consuming Jesus
Himself, He would not diminish. Rather we would increase in our unity with Him.
Throughout the Bible, a banquet is the hallmark of hospitality and an expression of love and care for
another. It is also a reminder of how we are dependent on receiving food to continue to live. Jesus took
this and elevated it to include our spiritual life. For just as the Father rained manna from heaven to feed
and nourish the Israelites as they were freed from slavery in Egypt, so does Jesus give us his body and
blood as our food and drink to feed and nourish our life as we are freed from slavery to sin and death.
By the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our lives have acquired a new freedom and direction. It is
for this reason that Jesus left us the great sacrifice of the Mass. The centrality of the Mass as the source
and summit of our faith is such that it continues to feed us along the way.
As we ponder this great gift, let us renew our love of the Eucharist, take advantage of Confession, and
unite ourselves to Jesus Christ through His most Holy Body and Blood. May our hearts echo the
sentiments of the psalmist as he wrote: «I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be ever in my
mouth. Let my soul glory in the Lord; the lowly will hear me and be glad.» Let our union with Christ be
that source of joy to others that we encounter on the journey to heaven.
