Throughout history, arguably the biggest challenge to the Catholic faith has been the doctrine of the Eucharist; too many people have struggled with and failed at, understanding this teaching of the Church.
In the Bread of Life discourse, we read that as a result of Jesus’ teaching “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” (John 6: 66)
And what was our Lord’s response to this? He didn’t go after them and tell them they had misunderstood him; he didn’t say that he was only speaking symbolically; he simply asked the Twelve “Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:67). Are we like the “many” disciples who left rather than accept this “hard saying”? (John 6: 60) We do not think we are like them; after all, we come to Mass and receive The Eucharist on Sundays.
Sometimes we may struggle because we see only the little white host that looks like bread and nothing at all like flesh or what we imagine God would look like.
Sometimes receiving can become routine; just another part of the Mass, which has become just another part of Sunday.
The Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ
Yet there is a man in our Church history who was able to see beyond what we see visually with our eyes and to see the Eternal Truth in that little white host. A man for whom the veil was lifted and who could see Jesus “face to face” hidden in the Eucharist.
Peter was a man in love with Jesus in the Eucharist. He knew that there on the altar, at every Mass when the priest speaks the words of consecration, the host actually becomes Jesus; Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. And he knew that because of this great condescension of Christ, we can literally receive Him into our hearts. We can be united with Christ.
That the God of the Universe, of all Creation, of Eternity, would come to us in such a way was enough for Peter; he had had the veil lifted and he could not turn back.
The Blessed Sacrament
Peter described the Miracle of the Loaves (John 6) as “but a faint idea” of the miracle of the Blessed Sacrament. By multiplying the loaves to feed five thousand to their full and with fragments leftover Jesus lifted the veil a little to show us something of what He would do for us in the Eucharist. Jesus was showing us how He would multiply Himself repeatedly, whole and entire, in every Host, until the end of time. This is how He remains with us, abiding in us, never abandoning us.
As any man in love, Peter felt the isolation and abandonment that his loved one is shown when on our empty altars no one comes to adore Him. Peter wept at the thought of the sacrifices that our Lord Jesus makes for us in the Blessed Sacrament, which we ignore. All too often we do not love, we do not reverence and we do not believe; we can be counted among those who “who no longer accompanied him”.
Yet, Peter tells us, that Jesus loves us so much that he makes Himself subject to our priests, obedient to the words of consecration spoken by the priest at Mass so that we may be united to Him.
He comes to us in a little white host. It doesn’t look like much, just a wafer; that is because the accidents have not changed, but the substance has!
Jesus, The House of Bread
The substance is Jesus Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity; The Eternal God, who loves us beyond all limits. He remains there, waiting for us so that we may have the bread of life. How fitting then, that He should have chosen to be born in Bethlehem “The House of Bread”. What love our God has for us.
This man who so profoundly loved Jesus was Peter Julian Eymard; a catholic priest and saint of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
We would do well to pray for a faith like his so that Jesus would lift the veil from our eyes and allow us to see face to face the Glory of God poured out for us on the altar at every Mass.
| Prayer O God, You filled Saint Peter Julian with wondrous love For the mysteries of the Body and Blood of your Son. Grant, we beseech you, That, like him, We may experience the richness of this Holy Banquet. Grant this through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit One God forever and ever. Amen |
