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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Food for Thought

Then Jesus said to them: "Amen, amen, I say unto you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, the same also shall live by me.This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate manna and are dead. He that eats this bread shall live for ever."

Gospel of St.John 6: 53-58


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Recently, during the Corpus Christi Mass, my Bishop in his sermon made a very interesting point regarding the Eucharist. He said, "When we go up and receive Holy Communion it is not just us who are receiving Christ into our body but rather also Christ who is receiving us into His."

Now if we think about it in a more down to earth manner, if we in receiving Christ are being received into His body should we not be as clean ourselves as we would like when we receive our own food?


If you ever noticed; most of the time before our food is taken into ourselves it is cleansed first with water and then over a fire (or heat).

It is the same with us and Christ, before we let ourselves enter in union with Christs' body we should first receive absolution through the sacrament of confession( cleansing by water) and then followed by penance for our sins ( fire). In this way we will make good supplements in Christs' body and not end up as cancerous cells that causes nothing but hurt to our sweet Jesus.


Also in my observation and contemplations I cannot bear but wonder at the unsound judgment of Catholics these days. Why is it that when the Eucharist is exposed in the monstrance we show such reverence but when Christ is exposed before us during Holy Communion we treat Him so superficially? What is the difference between the contents of the monstrance and the communion bread?


Before I end I would like to also give you a little something to think about. Whenever you receive the Eucharist in Holy Communion just imagine yourself as a tabernacle, a monstrance, that is now housing the Blessed Sacrament. How we adore the Eucharist when it is exposed to us, should we not treat our own bodies in the same holiness and reverence? (How we dress: do we protect our modesty? How we speak: do we speak using foul, reckless and uncouth language? What we think and watch: are we constantly being filled with impurities in thought by what we watch or read? etc.)


St. Thomas Aquinas and St.Gemma Galgani Ora Pro Nobis.


Ad Jesum per Mariam

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