Something we do

Eat this bread

Henri Nouwen tells the story of his father who would sit at the dinner table on Sunday and uncork a bottle of wine.  He would carefully pour a bit of the liquid into his glass and then would hold the glass, admire the colour of the wine, sniff its bouquet as though he were drinking the scent, and only then would take a bit of it into his mouth, where he would let it sit so he could absorb all its layers before he would finally swallow.  Ever since I first read this account, I’ve tried (admittedly not with much success at times) to experience life in this way, for is this not what Jesus asks us to do?

• Listen to this homily

In today’s gospel, he tells us: I am the living bread … We can easily associate the Eucharist with the images of bread and wine, but these are most often the subject of static pictures.  If the bread that we receive is to be living bread, and if the wine we receive is to truly become the cup of eternal salvation, then we must see these gifts not as things on a plate or in a cup, but as Jesus himself who offers his own body and pours out his own blood (Sacramentum Caritatis, 7).  Having received these gifts of life, our task is then to walk out of the doors of this church and to be living signs of God in the world.  We do this by following the advice that Paul offers to the Ephesians in today’s second reading: Put away from you all bitterness, wrath and anger … and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Receiving bread and wine are easy tasks; receiving the gift of Christ’s body and blood though adds a different dimension, because this latter is not a passive action.  Instead it compels us to live what we believe.  This is not always easy; in fact it can at times be the most difficult of tasks because it often means that we must set aside our own wants and desires.  If however we truly understand the power of the Eucharistic gifts, then we will aim every day to taste them with our entire beings, and seek always to be witnesses of the life that they offer.