"Body of Christ." I've stood in a similar line for years, heard a thousand voices saying those same words to me. What does that phrase mean for me, for my life? Do those words refer to the small, white piece of bread, to me, or to all of us who believe? I believe those words refer to all of the above. All of the time. But it's so easy to forget this. It's so easy for the whole, mind-blowing meaning of "Body of Christ" to get lost in the sameness of the ritual week after week, year after year.
The truth is that God loved - loves me - loves all of us - so much that, in Jesus, God became a human being like us in every way but sin: became body and blood. Became a human being, helpless, fragile, to be one with me, with us, to walk along side us, to experience sorrow, joy, friendship, betrayal, sickness, death - so that no one could think that God is absent and apart from human experience. God in Jesus loving us to the death is the greatest love story of all time. God in Jesus being raised from the dead to teach us that we too have immortal souls is the greatest love story of all time. God loved us so much that love mortally hurt God. God loves us so much that God never wants to leave us and stays with us in the Eucharist. Love given freely only produces more love. God never wants to leave us. Jesus stays with us in the Eucharist, his whole being. Having given us his whole being during his life on earth, the Risen Christ stays with us in his whole being.
Pope Francis believes that the Eucharist is NOT, as he says, "a magic rite" but is an ENCOUNTER with Jesus, the Living God. An encounter! A personal, intimate meeting between God and us! An encounter even more intimate than the joining of two bodies in a sacred, committed sexual act, because in this encounter Jesus and we become totally united in body, mind, heart, and soul. This Holy Food might physically change into food for our bodies. But spiritually it is meant to change us into other Christs because Eucharist, if we are open to God, unites us with the very life of God. The Pope tells us,
"“The Eucharist is Jesus who gives himself entirely to us. To nourish ourselves with him and abide in him through Holy Communion, if we do it with faith, transforms our life into a gift to God and to our brothers/sisters.
"To let ourselves be nourished by the 'Bread of Life,' means to be in tune with the heart of Christ, to assimilate his choices, thoughts, behaviors....we enter into a dynamism of sacrificial love and become persons of peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and sharing in solidarity."
How many Catholics strive to stay awake and alert during the words of Consecration, but stand in line and receive Jesus in the Eucharist, their minds a million miles away? They think they've done their duty by paying attention to the priest's words "This is my Body...This is my Blood.." but they never think about what Jesus uniting himself to them in Communion can do for their lives, is meant to do IN their lives.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, who deliberately stepped forward in a concentration camp and took the place of another prisoner who was supposed to be starved to death, and allowed himself to be starved to death instead, said this about receiving the Eucharist:
"The culmination of the Mass is not the consecration, but Communion."
Communion - union with Jesus! Union with the One Who is the Word creating the world, the One Who sacrificed His life for us, the One Who desires to RE-CREATE US. Terrifying. Exhilarating. We don't know Who we are receiving into ourselves.....We don't adore. We don't open our door to our hearts. If we did, we would be transformed beyond recognizing ourselves. We would love until it hurt and receive more love to love even more deeply, to love the Body of Christ, to love all people, throughout the world, for all time. We receive Christ as a personal Gift to become personal Gifts to God and personal Gifts to and for others.
Maybe we don't really want to think about Who we are receiving when we open our mouths to the white Host and swallow. Maybe it's easier for this action to remain just a habit. I might be asked by Jesus to do too much! To step outside my own little world where I know everyone and everyone knows me.
Because the truth is that the Risen Christ, when he gives us his whole being in the Eucharist, gives us his whole Body, which is all Christians, which is the Communion of saints. Gives us his whole Body for us to be united with more deeply. Gives us his whole Body for us to love and care for as his hands and feet, heart and soul on earth. Gives us himself in Communion so that we can see him everywhere else! As Mother Teresa, said,
There is no way that these small hearts of ours can stretch, expand, and grow soft through our own power. Pope Francis says,
“How can we respond to those who say that there is no need to go to Mass, not even on Sundays, because what is important is to live well, to love our neighbours?
“It is true that the quality of the Christian life is measured by the capacity to love, but how can we practice the Gospel without drawing the necessary strength to do it, one Sunday after another, from the inexhaustible spring of the Eucharist?
"It is true that Catholics must go to Mass because it is the law of the Church..... however this alone is not enough.
“We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses,” he said.
"Without the Eucharist, Christians are condemned to be dominated by the fatigue of everyday life.”
I stand in line weekly, fatigued by my daily life, to receive the Bread of Life, the Cup of Salvation, the Living Water - Jesus, the Christ. I come so that my daily fatigue will not deaden my soul. I come so that my weak, unloving heart can be strengthened by Christ to love again and again. I come so that I can re-enter His Paschal Mysteries of Cross and Crown so that I can carry my cross with grace. I come for the Divine Encounter which is slowly, painfully, yet joyfully, changing me more into the One Whom I receive.