Two Reflections on the Holy Eucharist

 

TWO REFLECTIONS ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Some reflections I have expressed elsewhere in the past. 

Food for the Soul

The Israelites lamented again, “If only we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished; we have nothing to look forward to but this manna.”—Numbers 11:4-6

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”—John 6:53-58

The soul is entirely immaterial. It does not demonstrate the same substantiality as that of the body.

The Holy Eucharist is food for the soul. Not surprisingly, we cannot expect the Holy Eucharist to show the same substantiality as food for the body. We should expect it as spiritual food to demonstrate the same immateriality as that of the soul.

The Holy Eucharist feeds us spiritually even though we are not aware of its beneficial effects in the same way that we are cognizant of the satisfaction and sustenance we experience from our bodily meals.

The Holy Eucharist feeds us with intangible spiritual graces—for example, holy inspirations, spiritual knowledge and understanding, interior strength to resist evil, or the special or necessary graces which we might require at any particular moment. We receive these graces not only at the time of reception but subsequently as well.

The Holy Eucharist like bodily food nourishes and sustains us for some time afterwards.

The Prayer of Quiet

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.—John 7:37-39

Jesus Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, in his body, blood, soul, and divinity.

When we pray before the Blessed Sacrament, the Real Presence is like an ever flowing spring from which streams of spiritual consolation water our souls to the point of overspilling.

“The water comes direct from its source, which is God, and, when it is His Majesty’s will and He is pleased to grant us some supernatural favor, its coming is accompanied by the greatest peace and quietness and sweetness within ourselves—I cannot say where it arises or how. And that content and delight are not felt, as earthly delights are felt, in the heart—I mean not at the outset, for later the basin becomes completely filled, and then this water begins to overflow all the Mansions and faculties, until it reaches the body. It is for that reason that I said it has its source in God and ends in ourselves—for it is certain, and anyone will know this who has experienced it, that the whole of the outer man enjoys this consolation and sweetness.”—Saint Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, II, 4