We become what we eat
Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR
Homily for Corpus Christi (My last Mass in Holy Names Church
Holy Names of Jesus & Mary Catholic Church
June 26, 2011
Adults are not alone in trying to understand the solemnity of Body and Blood of Christ. Children find it very difficult to understand it too. A boy of three was captivated by the Communion rite and watched every move of the priest until he finished wiping the chalice. Then the boy turned to his mother and said, “Mom, he’s doing dishes. Now can we go home?”
Another child was kneeling beside his mother at Mass after she returned from taking Communion. Looking at his mother the boy asked, “Mom, how does that pill taste?” Since she was praying silently to herself, she didn’t answer. Then he asked again: “Is it the kind of pill that puts you to sleep, Mom?”
Today’s solemnity causes many of us to scratch our heads wondering what it is all about. If you are wondering what Jesus meant when he said, “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” just know that you are not the only one in this wonder land. When Jesus said that, the Jews present quarreled about it asking, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” But Jesus did not back down; he even made the matter worse by saying, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”
Come on now, Jesus! What are you talking about? Do you want to make us cannibals? The people present may have said when he made those declarations. The Lord speaks of the eating of his body and the drinking of his blood. To those who eat his body and drink his blood, he says, “…I will raise them on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” But what does Jesus mean by those declarations?
As Catholics, we understand that Jesus is talking about the Eucharist- his Body and Blood. As Catholics, we believe that the bread and wine we receive at Mass is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. As Catholics, we believe that Jesus is fully present- body, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. By faith, we accept that what we receive during communion is the Body and Blood of the Lord. Jesus in today’s gospel says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” He also says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” Really! Is it that automatic? So does it mean that I have gained eternal life simply because I do receive the Body and Blood of the Lord? Does it mean that anytime I receive the Body and Blood of Jesus I am in him and he is in me?
Let’s remember that in Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not everyone who calls me, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven.” This means that receiving the Body and Blood Jesus at every Mass is not enough to merit us heaven. We must let Jesus whom we receive transform us. We must live, talk and act like those who receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. We must live like the Body of Jesus. We must become what we eat before we can inherit eternal life. We must become what we receive at Mass before we can be one with Jesus.
To become what we eat is to become like Jesus. And the one we receive is human and humane. The one we receive is kind and compassionate. The one we receive is gentle and humble. The one we receive is selfless and sacrificial. The one we receive is whole and holy. The one we receive is sinless and virtuous. The one we receive loves everyone- saints and sinners. The one we receive does not despise or discriminate anyone. He does not look down on any one. He is all things to all people. The one we receive gave his all to all. Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” To remain in Jesus means to be everything about Jesus. Our lives must be everything Jesus. Holy Names students usually sing this song:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning
Jesus in the noontime
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down
This song must constitute our lives. Our lives must be Jesus in the morning, noontime and when the sun goes down. That’s what it means to be in Jesus and Jesus in us. When Jesus says whoever eats his Body and drinks his Blood remains in me and I in him, he means that the reception of his Body and Blood at Mass must transform us from within. As I said before, we must become like who have received. We must take Jesus into us, and we must come into him before we can have eternal life.
Some of us may be asking why we are celebrating the Eucharist (i.e. Corpus Christi St Paul
In order to have a good understanding of the Eucharist we need to ask why Jesus gave us this sacrament in the first place. A closer reading of today's gospel or, better still, the whole of the Eucharistic discourse in John 6 from which today’s gospel is taken provides useful answers. From the reading we find that there are two main reasons why Jesus gave us this sacrament. First, In Matthew 28:20, Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time. In the Eucharist he provides a visible sign and an effective means of him being present to us and us being present to him. As Jesus himself says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” Secondly, In John 10:10 Jesus says that he came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. In the Eucharist Jesus provides a visible means of communicating this life to us so that we can be fully alive both in this world and in the next. As Jesus said in John 6:53-54, “Amen, Amen, I say you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” In the Eucharist, Jesus makes himself present to us and provides us the opportunity of making ourselves present to him. In the Eucharist, Jesus feeds us. He gives us the food for the journey. Life is a journey. We need the Bread of Angels to walk it.
The Jews that Jesus addressed today’s gospel to had gathered to ask him for more bread. Jesus had just multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish and fed five thousand people. So, they came asking for more bread. Instead Jesus promised to give them the sacramental food. But in their worldly way of thinking, they did not understand or appreciate the sacrament. If we, like the Jews who first heard Jesus talk about his Body and Blood approach the Eucharist with a materialistic mentality, we would loose the spiritual and sometimes the material benefits of such a wonderful gift of God’s love. The Eucharist is real food and real drink but not like every other food we eat. Other food we eat can only blend with our body but cannot transform us in and out. Only Eucharist, the Bread of Angels, can. When we eat ordinary food, we transform them into our own bodies but only the Eucharistic food can transform us into the Body of Christ.
The question then is why is it that so many of us who receive the Eucharist do not experience this radical, complete and real transformation? This story may help us understand why. A team of Russians and Americans were on a common mission. Among the items of food was Russian black bread. It was a tasty bread but hard on the teeth. It happened that at their meal, one of the Americans decided to have a bite of the bread, and immediately had a crack on his tooth. He threw the bread overboard and grumbled, “Lousy communist bread.” But the Russian countered, “Is not lousy communist bread. Is rotten capitalist tooth.” If we do not experience the transforming power of the Eucharist it is probably not on account of a lousy Eucharist but on account of our rotten faith.
If we receive the Eucharist in the right disposition, free from all sins, we become what we eat.
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