Communion with Jesus: What does it mean?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

August 19, 2012

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of John, chapter 6. For the past four Sundays, we have been reading John, chapter 6, which is a Discourse on the Bread of Life. In today’s Gospel (John 6:51-58), Jesus says, 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. When some of those who heard Jesus speak those words started quarreling among themselves: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? the Lord insisted all the more: 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. The command to share in this food from heaven, the Bread of Angels, the precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, is indeed strong!

But what does it mean to share communion with Jesus in the Eucharist? Sharing communion with the Lord in the Eucharist is much more than simply the physical act of coming forward to receive the Eucharist at Mass. It is also meant to be a spiritual communion with Jesus, a profound desire to live in peace with him, a choice and a decision to live by his commands. To share communion with Jesus in the Eucharist is not only about coming forward at Mass and receiving his Body and Blood. When the Lord says, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day, he wasn’t saying it was going to be an automatic thing, that as long as we receive his Sacred Body, we are automatically saved; that we don’t have to do anything else. Communion with Jesus in the Eucharist also entails becoming the body of Christ. We must become Christ in the world. When we receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, we must strive to become like the One we have received. This means that our hearts, our minds, eyes, hands,  and every part of us must experience, express and then communicate God and God’s love. We are to show love where there is hatred; to avoid judgement where there is injury; to speak peace where there is striving; to pray for sight where there is blindness; to be the light of Christ where there is darkness; to pray for millions in the world who are crying for healing and freedom; and to bear the cross patiently when we suffer, believing that if we die with Christ, we will also live with him (Romans 6:8) This is what communion with Jesus in the Eucharist is all about. 

Communion with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist means accepting the Lord as both our  life and our destiny. Communion with the Lord entails seeing him as the air that we breathe, the food we eat for everlasting life, the water we drink that quenches our thirst, the salt that gives our lives sufficient and amazing taste. It means taking Jesus as the cloth that covers and hides our ugliness caused by our sins. With this, we see Jesus as the cloth that gives us our dignity and respect, as the cloth that gives us amazing beauty and as the cologne and the perfume that gives us a sweet scent of glory and heavenliness. Communion with Jesus means seeing him as the house in which we find shelter and rest. In this house we are refreshed and protected against demonic bandits. 

Sisters and brothers, it bears repeating to say that communion with the Lord in the Eucharist involves accepting Jesus as our refreshment, our relaxation, our rest, our discussion, and our thought. It means keeping him at the center of everything we do and say. It means seeing him as the door and the gate we pass through daily. He is our everything. Through him we see God; through Jesus we hear God; through Jesus we touch God; through Jesus we perceive and feel God. Through Jesus we taste goodness, we taste God. Through Jesus we smell the glory of heaven and smell the sweet scent of God. Through Jesus we eat and dine with God. Through him we rest and sleep in God.  

Now, there are few other things I would like to point out in my message. They are still part of the Church’s teachings which we sometimes ignore or forget. Firstly, let us always remember the minimal one hour fast from food before we receive the Lord. The Church wants us to approach the Table of the Lord with our stomachs somewhat empty, so that physical hunger and emptiness will remind us that our true hunger is for God. We fast and hunger in order to know Jesus as our food, as the real food and the real drink. This kind of hunger is an attitude of life for the faithful Christian. We are not to fill up our lives with so many distractions and unnecessary things that we no longer desire Jesus or love him. Secondly, if we are not at peace with Jesus, if sin has separated us from him, the Lord asks that we repent and ask forgiveness of him before we receive his Body and Blood. He asks that we seek change in our lives, and if the sin is serious, that we confess it and seek reconciliation through the ministry of the Church. It is after that that we can come forward to share communion with him. Thirdly, as soon as the Sacred Host is received either by hand or on the tongue, it must be consumed immediately. No one should ever walk away from the priest or the Eucharist minister carrying the Host to the pew. When that happens, someone should follow that person and make sure that the Eucharist is consumed. Here in our parish, we have found the Sacred Hosts thrown away outside the Church. That is very wrong! If you have invited a guest to the church who is not a Catholic, please tell him/her not to receive Communion and why he/she is not allowed to do so. The person can come to the priest to receive blessing. Remember, the Eucharist is Jesus Christ! It’s the Lord’s everything! Finally, no one should leave the Church immediately after having received the Lord. Once we have received Christ, we must remain to pray and sing and give thanks, not to retreat to the parking lot. Unfortunately, by the time the Mass ends, many of those who have received Jesus in Holy Communion have already gone. Can’t we spend some precious moments in communion with the One we have received, giving thanks with God’s people until the priest says, Go in peace, the Mass is ended? And be there to respond: Thanks be to God?