Fr. Bob’s Greeting – June 2024 Enews

I was shocked and saddened some time ago when I read that over 50 percent of Roman Catholics do not believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; that at Mass, after the words of consecration, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. Let me share what we lose by not believing in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist.

You see, the night before Jesus died, He was faced with a problem. He had to leave us, but He wanted to stay to be with us. The solution was unbelievable. A solution only God could think of. He takes bread and wine and transforms them into His body and blood. He gives us Himself.

This is so amazing that we only believe it because Jesus told us. As someone has said, “If God, Himself, has told us who would dare to question.” Jesus loves us so much that He wants to be part of us and for us to be part of Him. And so, He invites us to receive Him at every Mass. With the Lord in us and part of us, we are never alone.

He will help you live with disappointment, with that illness that saps your strength and your spirit, with the hard knocks that life gives you. We are what we receive—the body of Christ.  That means that the bread of life is not an individualistic thing, a solitary supper. It is not my private party, something between Jesus and me. Yes, there must be time for prayer when you receive the Lord, but its main function is to form community.

St. Paul phrased it so well—because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The Lord who locks Himself in the tabernacle of my body is none other than the Lord who nourishes my next-door neighbor. The same God who feeds the Lebanese, the Japanese, the Africans and the Cubans. Christ is not divided; Christ is not multiplied. He came for all people. There is one and the same body, one and the same Christ for all. In His flesh we are one.

We who feed on the Eucharistic Christ must realize that we do not keep His presence to ourselves. We spread it. We take that presence from Christ to the world. We take the presence to a world that is hungry, not only for food, but hungry for freedom, for peace, and hungry for God. So the presence of Christ in me should at least make me think about my attitude toward the rest of the body of Christ.

Do I ever think about that person who lives alone, the neighbor who is sick or elderly? Do I ever shop for them, call them? Do I take time to listen when others need to talk? Does the presence of Christ in me make any difference to the way I live? Do I spread scandal and gossip ruining people’s reputations while I receive the one who said—Judge not and you shall not be judged? Do I use and abuse others while I receive the one who said—Love others as you would yourselves?

In other words, does the Eucharist make a difference in our lives or is it something that has become common place? Something we do every Sunday whether we want to or not. We will never fully realize the full value of the Eucharistic presence. It is a presence which is a promise. A promise of good things which eyes have not seen or ears haven’t yet heard. Blessings that have not entered our minds to imagine.

The Eucharist exists because of the love of Jesus. A love so strong that He is willing to come to us at every Mass. We begin to understand something of what He meant when He Said—”I am with you until the end of the world.” We begin to understand what the psalmist meant when hundreds of years before Christ said—”Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

And always remember what He told us: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” My friends, there is no other.