By Marcel Uzoigwe, CSSp.
(1st reading: Dt 8:2-3.14-16; 2nd reading: 1 Cor 10:16-17; Gospel: Jn 6:51-58)
We gather today to celebrate with our beloved children who are to receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time. The readings concentrate on the events of God feeding his people with spiritual food to strengthen them in their journey on earth.
The first reading recounts the experience of the Israelites on their way to the promised land. At some point on their journey through the desert, they ran out of food and provisions because the food they had brought out of Egypt had run out. They cried to God, who came to their rescue by sending them manna (Exodus 16:4). The word manna in Hebrew simply means “what is it” because the Israelites did not understand what it was when they saw it for the first time. Moses had to explain to them that it was the food God sent to sustain them. Manna is also known as the bread from heaven. The manna which the Israelites ate in the desert is considered a supernatural food that God provided for his people. They survived on the strength of this food during their 40-year wandering in the desert. They continued to eat the manna until the day after they ate the fruit of the land of Canaan. Then the manna ceased (Joshua 5:12).
Moses recounts this experience to reassure the people that God will always provide for them, even by extraordinary means, so long they remain faithful to them. God is a loving father who cares for his children. He never leaves us unattended. As a matter of fact, he foresees our needs and plans ahead for our benefits. All that God requires of us is faithfulness to him. He knows each and every one of us, our strengths and weaknesses, desires and aspirations, hopes and fears, and indeed our purposes and goals in life. Faithfulness keeps us united with God who carries our burdens and sorrows (Isaiah 53:4), giving us the strength for life’s journey.
But God does not just want to be there, next to us. He wants to be one with us; he wants to be united with us. We read in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. There are many ways to show one’s love and care for the other. One can give tangible materials things like gifts and flowers. That is an easy one. There are also intangible gifts like time, attention, good advice, rendering help and services, and so on. But when one offers his or her own self for the sake of the other, then it is something on the high side. It is a sign of total dedication. The self-giving of Jesus transformed the human person laboring under the pain of sin, which Paul connects to the bondage of the law (Galatians 4:4-5). Jesus taught the love of the Father and brought that love to completion in the offering of his life on the cross. We know that Jesus did away with the consequences of sin that hung on the fallen humanity by his self-sacrifice on the cross. But he did more than just that. On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist that is his true Body and Blood and gave to his disciples (Matthew 26:26-27). That was when they received the Body and Blood of Jesus for the first time, just as you are going to do today.
Why does Jesus give us his Body and Blood? This question has been asked again and again. Even the Jews in today’s gospel had a similar question. But the answer is not far-fetched. Jesus gave the only accurate answer: “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” Receiving the body and blood of Jesus is surrendering our entire self to God so that he can reign in our lives. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He comes to walk with us on the path of life, to teach us the truth about the Father, and to give us life eternal. He simply wants to be part of everything that goes on in our life. When we receive him worthily in the Eucharist with faith and devotion, he becomes for us the source of strength, taking away all fears. Little wonder the bible says this about the children of God in 1 John 4:4: “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”. So, when Jesus warns the Jews in the gospel reading that unless they eat of his body and drink his blood, they do not have life within them, he is assuring them that eternal life is in him, and whoever fails to get united with him is lost.
Beloved children, today you join other Catholics all over the world to respond to this invitation of Jesus to be one with him in the Holy Eucharist. Paul reminds us in the second reading that though we are many, we share in the one bread – the Christ, indicating that we are united in the one body. Whoever, therefore, shares in the one bread is called upon to preserve the unity of the children of God, in the one love that joins us together. We need to live in the power and love of Jesus Christ who has become one with us. We have to give ourselves over to Jesus Christ and allow him to manifest his glory through us to all people around us. How do we do that?
We do that by letting every part of us to glorify God. Let our hands serve as if Jesus was serving; let our mouths speak words of goodness and care as Jesus would; let our minds think wonderfully good things that will make the world a better place like Jesus did; let the people around us experience Jesus through us. By receiving the blood and blood of Jesus, we have become ambassadors of Jesus. We are his image and likeness.
There is this short prayer that captures the response Jesus wants from us as we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist. It is not just a response that we verbally give, but something that we must translate into action. It goes this way:
Jesus, I love You
All I have is Yours
Yours I am and Yours I want to be
Do with Me whatever You will.
We pray that today will be the beginning of a more glorious life for you and your family. Congratulations on your first holy communion.