The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Food and drink of eternal life sustain us on our journey

(En Espanol)

On Corpus Christi, June 6, 2021, Pope Francis’ reflections on the Eucharist centered on three fundamental ideas: First, to celebrate the Eucharist, “we need to recognize our thirst for God, to sense our need for him, to long for his presence and love, to realize that we cannot go it alone, but need the food and drink of eternal life to sustain us on our journey.”

Second, in the Eucharist, Christ makes himself small, a morsel of bread. To recognize him, our hearts must be open. “God’s presence is so humble, hidden and often unseen,” the pope said, “that, in order to recognize his presence, we need a heart that is ready, alert and welcoming.”

Third, Pope Francis reflected on the image of Jesus breaking the bread at the Last Supper and sharing it with the Apostles. “This is the eucharistic gesture par excellence,” the pope says. “It is the distinctive sign of our faith and the place where we encounter the Lord who offers himself so that we can be reborn to new life.”

These three ideas—our thirst for God, our need to open our hearts and our encounter with Jesus in the breaking of the bread—offer profound insights into the mystery we celebrate every time we receive Christ’s Body and Blood.

Too often, we take this encounter with Jesus for granted. We either receive him nonchalantly, paying insufficient attention to the grandeur and majesty that are hidden in the “tiny morsel” that we receive. Or we fail to acknowledge the seriousness of the obligation to keep the Lord’s Day holy and miss Mass on Sunday without giving it a second thought.

“Our thirst for God brings us to the altar,” Pope Francis says. “Where that thirst is lacking, our celebrations become dry and lifeless.”

When we allow our hearts to become indifferent to the magnificent gift that our Lord offers us in the sacrament of his Body and Blood, the thirst for love and for truth, for joy and peace, goes unquenched.

The Holy Father challenges us to resist the temptation to accept this attitude of indifference in ourselves or in others. “As Church, it is not enough that the usual little group meets to celebrate the Eucharist,” he says. “We need to go out into the city, to encounter people and to learn how to recognize and revive their thirst for God and their desire for the Gospel.”

Going out—whether to the city or to the outer regions of our communities—requires us to share with others our love and devotion for the Lord. It demands that we give witness to him as the only food and drink that can satisfy our hungry, thirsty hearts. “But if wonder and adoration are lacking,” Pope Francis says, “there is no road that leads to the Lord.”

The Holy Father reminds us that the breaking of the bread demonstrates in a powerful way the Lord’s willingness to give himself for us unreservedly. As he teaches us:

“In the Eucharist, we contemplate and worship the God of love. The Lord who breaks no one yet allows himself to be broken. The Lord who does not demand sacrifices but sacrifices himself. The Lord who asks nothing but gives everything. In celebrating and experiencing the Eucharist, we too are called to share in this love. For we cannot break bread on Sunday if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters. We cannot partake of that Bread if we do not give bread to the hungry. We cannot share that Bread unless we share the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in need. In the end, and the end of our solemn eucharistic liturgies as well, only love will remain. Even now, our eucharistic celebrations are transforming the world to the extent that we are allowing ourselves to be transformed and to become bread broken for others.”

Of course, we cannot transform the world if we are not hungry or thirsty enough to seek spiritual nourishment. We cannot alleviate the sufferings of others if our hearts are hardened to the pain and injustice we witness all around us.

Our solemn eucharistic liturgies only succeed as genuine worship if they acknowledge that “we cannot go it alone, but need the food and drink of eternal life to sustain us on our journey.” Let’s turn to the Lord in wonder and adoration and open our hearts to his transforming love.
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †