Jesus knew that his days in the world were numbered. He wanted a way to stay close to us not only spiritually, but physically as well. The way Jesus decided was by transforming ordinary bread into His body and ordinary wine into His blood. If I lost you on that last sentence, don’t feel bad. Most people stopped following Jesus when He asked them to eat His body and drink His blood.
After Jesus asked that, the people pressed Him and said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus didn’t come back and say that He was just kidding or only speaking metaphorically. He reinforced what He said by saying, “Truly, truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you”.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. When we receive the Eucharist, we have Jesus who is the fullness of life in us. The Eucharist is not just a symbol or a way we remember Jesus, it actually is Jesus. Jesus’ first miracle was transforming water into wine, so why can’t He also turn wine into His blood?
Jesus also said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Jesus is the Word of God. John starts his Gospel by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. So when Jesus says that man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God, He is saying that man has life through Him.
The theme for the past few weeks has been making our relationship with Jesus the top priority in our life. There is no closer that we can get to Jesus in this life than by receiving Him spiritually and physically in the form of the Eucharist. Life can be very draining sometimes. Receiving the Eucharist provides us food that recharges our soul. One great way to relax and get away from the world is by going to adoration of the blessed sacrament. Just sitting in the presence of Jesus is very calming to me.
Jesus gave us the gift of Himself present in the Eucharist. If we want Jesus to be more present in our life, we should receive the Eucharist often. Long distance relationships don’t often last long, so we should keep ourselves as close as possible to Jesus. When we receive Jesus by inviting Him into our body and soul, we carry Him with us in our life. The light of Jesus is so bright that it will shine through every pore of our body and we will light up the entire world.
