THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
Friday of the Third Week of Easter
My dear encountered couples:
Jesus speaks of receiving him in Holy Communion. He loves us so much he wants to become one with us and us one with him. That’s the way it is with lovers. They want to get as intimate with each other as they can. Unfortunately, their bodies put a limit on that. But that does not stop Jesus. He has worked out a way that he can become one with us in both body and soul. And in doing so, he does not become like us, we become like him. That’s the way it is when a higher nature joins with a lower.
For instance when we eat our daily meals. Though it has been said jokingly we become what we eat, the contrary is the truth. We don’t become the corn flakes, and the hamburgers, and the pizzas; they become us. Because we are of a higher nature, they are drawn up into us and become part of us; they share in our human lives.
It is like that all the way up the food chain. Minerals become part of the grass that absorbs them, grass becomes part of the lamb that eats it, and the lamb becomes part of us after we partake of it. But when it comes to the Lamb of God, because he is divine and we are but human, we are drawn up into his likeness. In Holy Communion we receive Jesus Christ and are made to become like him.
“I’ve been receiving communion for years,” we might say, “and I’m still the miserable old sinner I always was.” Or maybe it is our friends who might say that about us. When we receive Jesus with the right disposition of wanting to become like him, and put forth effort to live our everyday lives as he taught, we will grow in his likeness. Like we have to exercise the muscles in our bodies to better distribute all those calories we consume, we must exercise the faith in our souls to better absorb the likeness of Christ. “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.”
Keep up your frequent communions.
