Eucharist

For most of my life I’ve had dental woes.  Lately, things are getting worse, partly due to aging I suppose.  This is seriously stressing me out.

I don’t like things in my mouth that are breaking, loose, falling out.  Not to mention, wasting huge amounts of time and money on dental visits and long-suffering until my appointments.

This is preventing me from eating some of the things I enjoy, so it’s frustrating and challenging. I am not new to issues with food, more recently having raised three kids with severe food allergies.

As I continue to hunger for the foods I enjoy, I think it is God’s way of turning my attention to spiritual food and hunger for Him.  Nothing on this earth will ultimately satisfy.  The human heart longs for more than what earthly food can give.

Thus, I have been pondering spiritual food, specifically Communion, the body and blood of Christ, which fills and sustains us just like the physical food we eat. 

Spiritual food is the only truly life-giving food that can save us for all eternity and give us strength for our days on earth. 

While I (patiently?!) wait and hope for my teeth to be repaired, Jesus “repairs” us through our communion with Him, the most intimate way we can connect with Christ this side of heaven.

The Lord’s Prayer invokes “give us today our daily bread” which many times we forget means spiritual bread as well.  (Matt. 6:11)

Food is necessary to keep us alive but we must eat proper, healthy food.  A person with food allergies who eats the wrong food, has the potential for death.  So too we need the right kind of spiritual food (Communion, God’s word, prayer, etc.) to avoid spiritual death.

God is known for feeding His people throughout the Bible, from manna in the desert in the Old Testament to the loaves and fishes in the New.

As a good earthly father feeds his children, why wouldn’t our Heavenly Father do the same for us, and even more? Especially since He is no longer physically walking with us in human form.

I recently learned of Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa of Portugal who lived on the Eucharist alone for 13 years after being paralyzed and later bedridden, from jumping out a window to escape an attacker.  This has been medically proven.

On July 30, 1935 Jesus appeared to her, saying:  “I have put you in the world so that you may draw life only from Me, to bear witness to the world how precious the Eucharist is…..The strongest chain that keeps souls in bondage to Satan is the flesh and sins of impurity.”  (The Eucharistic Miracles of the World, pg. 294)        

Our flesh must be crucified with Christ so we don’t give in to the devil.

This holy woman’s story is a testament to the Eucharist and spiritual food being of utmost importance.  Of course I am not suggesting anyone try to live on communion bread alone, but after hearing this story and many others throughout the ages, how can we not believe or partake as often as we can in this great gift of Jesus Himself?

I admit it has occurred to me, that maybe I am crazy to think a piece of Styrofoam bread is Jesus, but people for 2,000 years before me have believed it and still do today.  This is where faith comes in.

Plus, I have had experiences that were otherwise unexplainable pointing to this reality.  You can read about one I shared here.

Things are not always as they appear to the naked eye and our feeble human minds are not able to comprehend all things.  I would rather believe and get strength from a piece of spiritual bread even if I were to be wrong, than follow the sinful, evil, false teachings of the world and get nowhere, with no peace, no spiritual food, no eternal life. 

When the focus is on Jesus you can’t go wrong.  He will take you where you need to go.

We must remember we are not worshipping a piece of bread, we are communing with Jesus.  There is the popular saying “you are what you eat.”  In receiving Jesus in this way, we are drawing closer to Him who loves us and made us, and hopefully becoming more like Him in the process.  

We are that which we consume, whether it be positive or negative, so we need to be careful about what we “eat” in every sense and choose our diet wisely.

As we become strengthened through Christ’s body and blood along with His word, we are then prepared to go forth and feed others so that they too may be spiritually fed and gain eternal life.

There are times in life where we just don’t know what to do or which direction to take.  To quote from one of my favorite poems written by Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by.”  Sometimes we are at a fork in the road.  We think we have exhausted every option.  Everything seems impossible.  But it is at times like these that we must trust that God will make a way, for nothing is impossible with God.

One example from my own life where God unexpectedly made a way, was when churches in my area had caved in to government tyranny in the spring of 2020 and went on lock down (for shame!!)  I had not been able to receive Holy Communion for months. You just don’t deny people the Sacraments, no matter what is going on.

That summer we drove to my daughter’s university to move her into her new apartment which happened to be directly across a small parking lot from the campus Catholic church. I split up from the group to walk over there and check things out. 

It so happened mass had just ended and people began flowing out the main door at the top of the hill.  I watched timidly from a lower, grassy hill which was near a bottom level church door.  Suddenly, for seemingly no particular reason, a young priest came out the door not too far from where I was standing.

He was wearing green vestments, and walked over to me and said hello and asked me if I had come for the ice cream after mass.  We got to talking and I explained that where I was from I was not able to go to church or receive Holy Communion for months.

He then graciously asked if I would like to receive Communion.  We went inside and just around the corner was the tabernacle in the church and I received Jesus!  Privately, just me!  This was a first.  What timing that I happened to run into him!

It was then that I realized it was Jesus standing on that hill greeting me through the priest, and offering me Himself.  It felt like a miracle!  I was finally being fed after starving!  (And yes, I did end up getting ice cream besides, which happens to be my favorite food!)

I discovered the priest had just been ordained 3 weeks prior and he was better at feeding his sheep than most of the priests back home who couldn’t seem to figure out they needed to feed their sheep, no matter what the cost.  A good father feeds his children.

Needless to say, I was rather ecstatic for a couple of days, continually rambling on how I was found and fed by Jesus Himself.  I’m sure I was driving everyone crazy, but that’s okay because maybe I planted some seeds since my daughter and her roommate were going to have to stare at that church building from their apartment window for the next year.  

Jesus came to me 500 miles from home when I least expected it and needed Him so desperately!  He made a way for me that day on that grassy hill, a spot which is now permanently etched into my memory. If Jesus can find me and feed me so far from home, I have no doubt He is always with me no matter where I am or whatever the circumstance.

Maybe you can remember times where God has made a way for you.  It can serve as encouragement the next time things seem impossible.  Following are a few Bible verses to encourage all of us along the road.

 7 Bible Verses Where God Makes a Way

1. Luke 1:37  For nothing will be impossible with God.
2. Exodus 14:21-22  Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind all night long and turned the sea into dry ground.  The waters were split, so that the Israelites entered into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water as a wall to their right and to their left.
3. Isaiah 43:16  Thus says the Lord, who opens a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.
4. Deuteronomy 31:8  It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you.  So do not fear or be dismayed.
5. Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all Your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely; in all your ways be mindful of Him, and He will make straight your paths.
6. John 14:6  I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.
7. Ecclesiastes 3:1  There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.

God will meet you wherever you are at.  You can expect He will make a way in His perfect timing. Sometimes you may have to wait.  Maybe a few minutes, maybe many years, but He will not forsake you.  He promised.

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Catholicism is a fascinating thing.  Often I am really stumped by it.  There is so much doctrine, ritual, legalism, rote prayers, Sacraments, Mary, saints, statues—the list is endless.  I call it “Catholic clutter” and so I basically took a break from the Catholic Church during my child-rearing years for what seemed to be simpler, Protestant ways.  I did my fair share of church shopping and reluctantly settled on a place where my severely wheat allergic daughter could receive gluten-free communion.

As a child, I went to Catholic grammar school with the mostly scary nuns, who had masculine names and rosaries jingling from their belts.  At least we knew when they were coming!  As it happened, I found myself in “Catholic” institutions all the way through my first two years of college.  I was also active in music ministry throughout my young adulthood. 

Now that my kids are grown, my Protestant break is over.  I find myself back at the Catholic Church and wonder if I have lost my mind.  Much of me still relates to the Protestants as well as more emotional forms of worship such as what I experienced in the Charismatic Renewal, where I found Christ and got “saved” as a teenager.  I was so Jesus-happy my mother thought I joined a cult!  Once, she even locked me in my room (those were the days of skeleton keys) when my ride was going to pick me up for prayer meeting.  My mother was so worried she even took her very religious, protestant friend, to a prayer meeting to analyze the situation.  They deemed it “okay” but far too emotional. 

In my Catholic high school, I would walk around with a giant Bible and religious jewelry hanging from my neck and I tried to convert all my unsaved friends.  It is embarrassing to remember those days.  I was an actual fanatic, crazy in love with Jesus.  But life goes on and has a way of toning you down.  Problems ensue, life happens and the spiritual honeymoon is over.  It was time to grow up.

What started me thinking about all this was a particular day recently when I happened to go to Adoration at the Catholic church, which then turned into Benediction, which then turned into people praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which then turned into Mass complete with a cappella hymn singing and topped off with the, suddenly controversial, St. Michael prayer.  Whoa! When I got out of there I felt like I was doused in a full round of Catholicism, like getting a full service car wash or a hamburger with the works!  It felt kind of good and cleansing! 

On the other hand, it also felt kind of weird.  What on earth was I doing there and even kind of liking it???  Me, the previous Charismatic, hand-raising, speaking in tongues, guitar playing, baptized in the Holy Spirit follower.  What to make of this?  Perhaps my doubts are from the devil, trying to tempt me away from Christ, or maybe it’s okay to like reverent rituals as well as joyful praise sessions.  There are many forms of worship.  After all, to everything there is a season. 

But what is it that keeps drawing me back into the Catholic Church, even with all the brokenness, sex abuse and fair amount of poor leadership, especially from this current Marxist Pope?  It is Jesus calling me to Himself through the Holy Eucharist.  In all my time spent in other churches, many did not even offer communion during their Sunday services.  The music could be good, the people sincere and welcoming, the preaching excellent, but I always had a feeling of emptiness.  Something was missing.  That something was Jesus in the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Catholic faith.  I wasn’t getting fed in the most vital way. 

Through the Eucharist, we commune with Jesus in the most intimate way. I am no expert on the Eucharist, but if I believe that it truly is the Real Presence of Jesus in the form of bread and wine after the priest does his consecration magic, then I am all in 100 percent.  What have I got to lose?  I can only gain.  Whether it be strength for my day, a closer relationship with Christ, or food for my soul.

As I get older, I am growing to like the “Catholic clutter”.  There is an over 2,000 year history to the Church that provides a richness and depth that other churches can’t rival.  I am more fully appreciating the majesty of ritual with the incense, holy water and elaborate priestly garb, especially during holidays.  I am more curious about what I can learn from the saints, that I used to write off as mentally ill, and am thankful we have a perfect Heavenly Mother who watches over us.  I find comfort in the familiarity and I love good music (when it can be found).  Now, being Catholic is like the icing on the cake.  It’s like having all the flavors of ice cream ever made, not just some of them.

I will always cherish emotional experiences, and feelings of God’s presence, but that isn’t realistic all the time.  It’s about commitment and faith, no matter what I feel.  It’s about relationship and Jesus in the Eucharist, communing with me. And what is more glorious than that?

Resources:

https://www.renewalministries.net/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D2WhjcvXUA  

Book: The Eucharistic Miracles of the World , presented by the Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association, Inc.