You Are What You Eat
December 6, 2023
Fr. John Riccardo
“Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.
“Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.”
(2 Peter 3:8-14)
In these days of Eucharistic Revival, I have found myself thinking often of the question, “Why does Jesus give Himself to us?” We’re big on mission language in ACTS XXIX, as we think there’s much confusion in the Church about the mission of Jesus and the mission of his disciples. Our brothers and sisters who serve our country in the military have been most helpful for us in thinking about mission. Like the Church, the military is fond of acronyms. One of the acronyms they use often is “IOT.” It stands for “In Order To.” Officers constantly need to make sure that the soldiers under their command are clear on the “in order to” whenever they go out on mission. For example, “We’re landing on that beach in order to…” Or, “We’re moving into that town in order to…” Without clarity on the mission, on the “in order to,” all sorts of negative results can and usually do occur.
What happens if we apply that language to our reception of the Eucharist – the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus? Jesus gives Himself to us in order to…what, exactly? To be sure, there are a number of ways we could answer that, and no one of them is exhaustive. One reason He gives Himself to us is in order to unite us to Himself. God is love, after all, and love wants union. The shocking reality that is revealed to us in the Eucharist is that God desires us! This is beyond comprehension. God is infinitely happy and lacking in nothing; He’s not bored, sitting around waiting for the College Football Playoffs to begin. And, yet, this God who is infinitely happy wants us! And not just “us.” You! Me! This is jaw-droppingly amazing. For some reason we can’t understand, God is attracted to us. How else are we to explain His becoming Man, born of Mary, so as to rescue us from Sin, Death and Satan?
Another reason, though, that He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist is in order to make us more like Himself. “You are what you eat,” goes the saying. If I eat nothing but Snickers bars all day, well, it will begin to show. But after 50 plus years now of consuming Jesus in the Eucharist, how much do I really look like Him? Is there more of a resemblance between Jesus and me today than there was, say, 15 years ago, or one year ago, or last week? Am I really changing? Do we consciously think each time we approach the altar to consume the Body and Blood of Jesus that one of the effects He wants to take place within us is for our minds, our hearts, our wills, our desires – everything! – to become more like His?
Peter tells us quite simply in our 2nd Reading this coming Sunday, “God is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God doesn’t wish, desire, want, intend, will anybody to be separated from Him, to not partake of the beauty of the new creation, to not reach the fulfillment for which He created all of us.
Is that true for us? Really, is that true for us? Are we patient and forbearing with one another the way God is with us? Are we harboring grudges, resentments, bitterness and unforgiveness towards anybody right now in our lives? Maybe it’s a spouse, son, daughter, in-law, co-worker, pastor, former friend, bishop, even a Pope perhaps? If so, it has to go. Let me repeat that: it has to go. God is not like that. And I can’t be like that if I’m going to be a disciple of Jesus.
How can this happen? Well, there’s nothing as powerful as what most of us do every week or, for some of us, everyday. We receive a blood transfusion every time we receive the Eucharist. The blood in my heart that so often holds on to hurts and cries out, “I can’t believe he did that to me!” is replaced by the Blood in His Sacred Heart that cries out, “Father, forgive them! They don’t know what they’re doing.”
Our country is, at times quite literally, at each other’s throats. Each day we read of someone or some group being demonized by someone else or some other group. The temperature is reaching a boiling point. The only remedy for this is God. As Cardinal Sarah’s book succinctly puts it, at the end of the day it’s God or nothing. Just as Christians did in times past, so we have a prophetic role to play in this age, a role of lowering the temperature, of helping others to recognize that the enemy is not “them” but rather “principalities and powers.” You and I are called to be working models of God’s healing, reconciling love and mercy.
And, so, the next time we approach the Lord in communion, let us do so fully alert to what we’re doing, Who we’re meeting, Who is about to enter into us and for what reason He is giving Himself to us. And let us bring His patience, His mercy, His forgiveness, His reconciling love into our homes, our neighborhoods, our parishes, our schools and our world that is shattered and utterly without hope absent the transforming power of God.