Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
In today’s Gospel we encounter Jesus giving what’s known as his “Bread of Life Discourse.” Jesus reveals himself as “the true bread from heaven . . . who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). In Jesus our deepest hunger and thirst are satisfied; in Jesus every need is met. Where and how does Jesus accomplish this for us? In the Eucharist. Today I pray that we might all be drawn irresistibly to more frequent reception of the Eucharist, to receive Jesus who truly is the Bread of Life for us.
It was the Eucharist that called me to conversion to the Catholic Church. I was merrily going about my business as a Protestant pastor until one day Jesus stopped me in my tracks and spoke to me, saying, “Don’t you want to receive me?” I countered, “Jesus, I received you [into my heart] as my Lord and Savior when I was 14 years old, and I’ve walked with you all these years.” Our Lord said, “Yes but, don’t you want to receive me?” I knew, in that moment, that Christ’s invitation was to receive Him in the Eucharist. I was completely undone and walked away from that encounter weak-kneed, dazed, confused, scared, but entirely convicted of my call to conversion. The Bread of Life revealed himself to me that day in a life-altering way, and He continues to change and transform me through the Eucharist.
Over the past 6-9 months or so, I struggled against a particular distraction during Mass. Toward the beginning of the Eucharistic Rite, I would become distracted by thoughts of food and drink. Thinking about what we were having for dinner after Mass, thinking about an upcoming dinner date, recalling a fun meal from the previous week, etc. These thoughts became like annoying flies, buzzing around in my head. I would swat them away, refocus on the prayer, and try to be more disciplined. I repeatedly confessed this distraction as sin and begged the Lord to remove this sin from my life. Yet the concupiscence remained until one day the Lord revealed to me that it was the enemy seeking to distract me from what is real food and real drink. I was actually being drawn more deeply into the Eucharist and the enemy didn’t want that to happen.
During the past 2-3 years or so, I’ve been in a purgative phase in my walk with the Lord. It’s been difficult and painful, but also beautiful and glorious as God is bringing about needed transformation in me. As I’ve wrestled to overcome some of my issues, I became frustrated with what I perceived as lack of progress. I would cry out to the Lord repeatedly in prayer, begging Him to root out the disordered attachments that I recognized within myself and to bring the healing that I recognized I so desperately needed. As we approached the start of this past Lent, I heard the Lord call me to more frequent reception of the Eucharist. During Lent, daily Mass became a new discipline for me. I didn’t make it every day, but I made it most days and as I went along, I knew deep down in my soul that even if I didn’t necessarily feel something emotionally or perceive something overtly, that God was at work deep within me doing what only God can do by God’s grace. I knew the Eucharist was the answer to my prayers and the medicine for my healing.
Jesus is healing and transforming me through the Eucharist. I share my testimony today to encourage you that Christ will heal and change you through the Eucharist, too. “Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” Bringing our prayers, petitions, confessions to God is vitally important; asking God to meet our needs is appropriate and necessary. It’s in the Eucharist that we find the answer to every prayer, and the fulfillment of our every need. In the Eucharist we receive Jesus himself. Later in our Gospel passage, Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” My prayer after Communion has become, “Jesus, as I have just consumed you, consume me.” When we consume food or drink it passes through us quickly and is eliminated. When we consume Christ and he consumes us we experience a deeper and more perfect communion with Him – a union with Him, a oneness with Him that never passes nor is eliminated. He truly does “remain in me, and I in him.”
As we are united with Christ in the Eucharist and receive His sanctifying grace, we are assured by His words, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Eternal life is not only after we die; eternal life is right now as we live our life in Christ. Jesus tells us, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The more frequently we receive the Eucharist, the more intimately we know Christ and the more fully we experience abundant life in Him. I can testify that the grace we receive through the Eucharist pulls out our sin by its roots, transforms our attitudes toward other people and helps us to love others more sacrificially, gives us eyes to see the world as Christ sees it, softens our hearts to become more compassionate, creates a more gentle, peaceful, and less anxious presence within us, alters the way we identify and define problems, revives and resurrects our True Self. Those are some of the changes that God is bringing about in me through more frequent reception of the Eucharist. All praise and glory be to God!
In the passage leading up to today’s Gospel, Jesus feeds the 5,000. The text says, “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’” (John 6:5, emphasis added). That same crowd followed Jesus and sought Him out (we find them in today’s passage). Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (John 6:26). That phrase, “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him makes me think immediately of Jesus looking up at us from the Eucharist as we flow up the aisle to receive Him during every Mass. As Jesus looks at you approaching Him in the crowd, what does He see in you? What kind of bread are you looking for? What do you seek?
I’m sensitive to the fact that not everyone reading this reflection may be in a state of grace to receive the Eucharist. Jesus longs for communion with you, too. Take the steps you need to take to be reconciled with God through Christ and restored to communion. There’s nothing that any of us needs more than the Eucharist. May the Holy Spirit fan the flames of desire, hunger, and thirst deep within each of us for the Bread of Life. May we be drawn to more frequent reception of the Eucharist and through it become more and more like Jesus. Thanks and praise be to God!
-Elizabeth Wells