There is food and there is food

Thursday in the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Acts 8:26-40; Jn 6:44-51

There is food and there is food. There is food which tastes good but which not only has little or no nutritional value, but that might even be unhealthy for you to consume. Then there is food which nutritious and healthy, which also reflects a healthy lifestyle that the person eating it is trying to pursue. A popular saying goes, "You are what you eat!"

Jesus today speaks to us about yet another type of food. It is a food that sustains us throughout the journey of life. This food is his very own Body and Blood. When we consume this bread, that is the Eucharist, with faith, we are changed by it. This bread is changed into the Body of Christ irrespective of our faith, but for it to change us we need faith.

The Body is Christ is bread for the journey because in our daily life we tend to face discouragement, we face temptation and sin, we face our pride and our will to dominate over others. But when we eat the body of Christ we realise what Jesus became for us and how we too are meant to live.

The Eucharist gives us courage for the journey because in it we see the extent of God's love for us. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" Then he makes a whole list: hardship, distress, persecution, famine etc.

The Eucharist is communion. It is not merely a sign of communion among us but it is communion. Since we all partake of the same bread, which is the Body of Christ, it also transforms us into the Body of Christ. Not separate Bodies of Christ but one whole Body of Christ. That is why we have to make sure that as much as possible we remove all divisions among us and anything that hinders communion among us.

May we approach the sacrament of Communion not simply as a devotion but much more than that: as something that sustains us throughout our journey in this life and which prepare us for the next one., and as something that truly reflects and brings about the communion we live among us and with our Lord Jesus Christ.