We Become the Body and Blood
One day you buy a lottery ticket with some random numbers. It is a Powerball ticket that costs $2.00. The ticket appears like all the other tickets. The day you buy the ticket, it has a value of $2. Later, as the ticket sits on the kitchen table, you hear the winning lottery numbers called and your ticket is a winner! The ticket did not change its appearance, but now it is not just the $2 ticket that you purchased, but a multi-million-dollar value ticket. You will receive millions of dollars when you present it to the authorities.
Many people buy lottery tickets with hopes that their ticket will “change” and be recognized as a “winner,” if only the correct numbers correspond. And yet, there are Catholics who do not believe that God, having seen and heard the genuine prayers and purposeful memories of the people, can change what appears as bread and wine, into the Body and Blood of Christ!
God can make such change happen and does so. Jesus commanded that we remember his whole life, his example, his teachings, and his relationships through a shared meal. He invited us to remember him by sharing in the Eucharist. And we as believers collaborate with God in this miracle by our full, active, conscious participation. And we receive the miracle! And we become the Body and Blood of Christ!
When I speak to children who are preparing for First Eucharist and to their parents and godparents, I remind them that “first” is an indication that there will be a “second” and many more, even a lifetime of Eucharist. We do not stop growing and learning after First Communion.
Every time I experience the Eucharist, I am experiencing and receiving something new. The “new” is in the community in which I am praying to God and adoring God. Each of us is a new person, even if we appear the same since the last time we celebrated the Eucharist. We have lived, loved, been loved, forgiven, been forgiven, suffered, enjoyed, struggled and succeeded. We are never the same from one moment to the next. Both small and great changes can happen at a moment’s notice. We learn and grow in wisdom in varied ways, sometimes profoundly, sometimes minutely. Each time we celebrate the Eucharist, we have a chance to meet the Other (God), the other (our neighbor), and ourselves anew.
Come to the Eucharist with hope, attentiveness, hunger, and with your weakness, if you feel weak, or with your power if you feel powerful. In any way you can, come to be fed and to feed others. The bread and wine are for us to be strengthened, for they are and we are, the Body and Blood of Christ!
Peace, Fr. Andy