A Reflection From our Pastoral Team
This Sunday is the Gospel of St. John, and we begin the chapter on the Eucharist. It starts with the multiplication of loaves and fish. It is an introduction to Jesus’s teaching on the Bread of Life. The feast of the Passover is near, and Jesus provides physical food here, but on another feast of the Passover, he will provide the Bread of Life.
Jesus has the people recline on the grass like the sheep led to verdant pastures in Psalm 23. With the remnants of the bread, the disciples fill up twelve wicker baskets. There were twelve tribes of Israel. There would be twelve apostles of the New Israel. The remnants were not thrown away, like the manna. This happens in our churches now; after we celebrate Mass, we keep the extra hosts, for they are the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We place the consecrated hosts in our tabernacles because this is still the Lord. We bring the Body of Christ to those who cannot join us at Mass. We pray before the Body of Christ in our Tabernacles.
There have been times when some people decided to leave the Church for another Christian church. I always tell them that they may have reasons for leaving the Church, but they are leaving the Eucharist, the real presence of God. To leave the Catholic Church for another faith is to reject the gift of the real presence of Jesus Christ as Eucharist. God is so great that He has found a way for all of us to attend the eternal Passover. He is so great that he has found a way for each of us to join the disciples at the Last Supper, or what is really the First Supper, the First Supper of the Kingdom. He is so great that He has created billions and billions of people in the world and yet has found a way to treat each person as an only child. He is so great that He loves every person as though each of us was the only person He ever created.
When we receive communion, we are present at the Last Supper, the First Supper, and the Banquet of the Lord. When we receive communion, we enter into the intimate union with God that Jesus came to earth to provide. How much our God cares for us! He has found a way to nourish our spiritual lives. His very Body and Blood keep us strong. He gives us the strength to proclaim His Kingdom.
At communion time, we must ask ourselves, “What am I doing?” Am I just following the crowd? Hopefully not. Am I receiving some blessing? Hopefully, we realize that communion is much more than a blessing. What is it that I am doing when I receive communion? I am receiving the Food that God provides. I am being nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, we pray for a deeper appreciation and reverence for the Great Gift of Love, the Eucharist.
As the time comes for me to move to my new assignment, Holy Family church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I pray that my goal here with you is for all of us to believe in the Real presence of God in the Eucharist. There have been more good times that I will remember than bad times. I will pray for all of you so you learn to embrace God and embrace one another, and love each other as Jesus has loved us. My prayer is this: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! This is the reason the world does not know us.” I John 3:1.
With love and gratitude, Brother Oscar.
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