BREAD OF HEAVEN

BREAD OF HEAVEN – Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, Year C

            The need we have for human words and physical food is great. Our TVs and radios run constantly and we eat every day, several times. We have a need for words from those who we are close to, our families and friends, as well as people in general.

            Human words have a great impact on us, and are necessary for balanced human life. People can become disoriented without a certain amount of human communication. Isolation is considered in prisons and wartime to be a severe and even cruel form of punishment.

            Just think of the words you have heard the past few days which affected you in a deep, personal way. It could have been an encouraging word, a disturbing word, a hurtful word, a lying word, or a disappointing word. Think of the words you hoped to hear, but didn’t. A word from a friend or a relative which never seems to come can hurt. Words feed our emotional and mental life. Words from our fathers are very important, and can influence our lives greatly.

            Our “daily bread” in the form of physical food is another need we have. Like human words, we are constantly learning more about the importance and impact of physical food on our lives, and how various foods, or the lack of them, can affect our health. A well balanced and adequate diet of food affects our emotional, mental, and physical health. We are aware of the millions in the world who don’t have adequate food, which creates severe problems on every level of human life.

            Our need for human words and physical food for physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing has a parallel on the level of our soul and spirit. We have built into our nature a spiritual hunger for Divine words and for the heavenly food and drink of the Body and Blood of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

            To live healthy spiritual lives, we have to consume the Word of God and the mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Jesus declared Himself to be the Living Bread come down from heaven to give life to the world. If we are to live the eternal life of the kingdom of heaven, which we received in our baptism, we need to nourish ourselves on the Bread of Eternal Life. We need Divine words and Divine food just as surely as we need human words and physical food to maintain a healthy human life. They are the sources of our healing, hope, life and union with God. Without them we become weak, ill, in danger of and unprotected from spiritual diseases, and possible eternal death.

            The Lord wants us to be well fed spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. The people who sought Jesus out in a lonely place had all the familiar hungers of people. They had needs for healing, food, human words, and for the Word and reign of God that Jesus proclaimed. His words fulfill the needs of the inner heart and soul. They help us know how to handle many of the harmful human words we hear. Many were and are healed by just being in the presence of Jesus and people. Good News and good words bring healing and life. The mind is healed with truth, the heart with love, and the body with wholesome activity including work, and especially works which help to meet others’ needs.

            Jesus opened up for the disciples a new form of healing, hope and life when they asked Him to stop feeding the people spiritually through His teaching, so they could go and get food. It must have come as a great shock to the disciples, as it does to modern day disciples, to find that with the Lord’s blessing and power they could meet the needs of people. “Give them some food yourselves.” They responded rather hopelessly as we would if we were asked to feed five thousand people. “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” Jesus blessed the little they had to work with, and multiplied it to feed the crowd. Whatever little we have, when blessed by the Lord, meets human needs.

            The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, which we celebrate in every Mass, and which Paul recalls in first Corinthians, gives us the finest spiritual food and strengthens us to live Christ’s life and to meet spiritual needs. We can be spiritually healthy, and help others to be spiritually healthy too!

Reflection from Divine Mercy, #1804

“If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things; one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering.”