Psychologists say that if we paid attention to every sound we hear or everything we see, we would literally go nuts. To protect ourselves from doing that, we block some things out of our consciousness. Psychologists call this process “habituation.” Parents and teenagers call it “tuning out.”
The drawback to this is that after awhile we begin to take certain things for granted like sunsets, flowers, and friends. One evening, a couple was sitting on their back porch. Both had worked long and hard that day. As many of us might do on a deliciously cool evening, the man fell asleep in his rocker. As his wife continued to relax, a spectacular sunset began to appear. Thoroughly enjoying its beauty, she woke up her husband so that he could appreciate the sight too. He yawned, “It’s just another sunset,” and went back to sleep.
Some Catholics view the Eucharist in much the same way. When I say, “the Body of Christ,” and they give me a lifeless response or none at all, I have to wonder if we share the same belief in what is present before us. For me, this is truly Jesus Christ, the son of God, not a piece of bread or a sip of wine. How blessed we are to be in his presence!
As the gospel relates, the Jews quarreled, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” And a few lines later, John notes that many disciples left, refusing to accept the mystery that Jesus offered them as the passage to eternal life.
Jesus made no attempt to soften his language or rephrase what he had said. His listeners knew that this was was not a parable, otherwise they might have stayed. Nor was this any slip of the tongue for Jesus repeated his message six times.Undoubtedly, he put much thought into what he said here and at the Last Supper, knowing that these words would be repeated throughout the world for the rest of time.
He didn’t say to the apostles, “This bread symbolizes my body.” No, Jesus clearly said in no uncertain terms, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
From the very beginning, the Church has always believed what Jesus said. Bread consecrated ceases to be bread and becomes for the community of believers the body of Christ. Wine consecrated ceases to be wine and becomes the blood of Christ. Their appearances remain the same but their substance has been altered into the real presence of Jesus.
When rationalism started to transform the thinking of many Europeans in the 17th century, some began to question this long held fundamental Catholic belief in the Eucharist. If something could not be explained with reason, it was rejected. To the rationalist, there was no way one could believe that Jesus was truly present in a piece of bread.
What comes to mind here is that there is a link between having a strong Catholic faith and feeding that faith regularly by attending Mass, worship, and communion. Think of this time together as nurturing your friendship with the Lord.
Consider the fact that all human friendship and love demand presence and signs of affection. This is most obvious with a child. Think of how often a youngster needs a mother’s attention and regular signs of affection and presence.Married partners also need them as well, as do friends. If they no longer have regular presence, by being together, sharing themselves, doing things together, the relationship dies or at best becomes dormant in due time.
Think of your own relationships. You have had many friendships that have faded over time or are no longer a part of your day-to-day living. All human friendship demands some presence, some sign of affection to survive.
The same is true of our friendship with Jesus Christ. This friendship demands our presence and affection too. While we can experience both in private prayer, reading scripture, or being in a prayer group with others, unless we are in regular contact with Christ in Sunday Mass and communion,we cannot have adequate contact with him in other settings.Absence and inattention diminishes that love and friendship as they do all human friendships. This is why Jesus emphasized that unless we eat of his flesh and drink his blood, we cannot have life within us. Simply put, the Eucharist is crucial to our spiritual well being.
The genius of our sacraments is that they make God’s love for us visible. Notice that we receive them individually, which is God’s way of conveying his love for us. In the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us personally to constantly prove his enduring friendship by truly sharing himself. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
We cannot afford to let the Eucharist become an habituation. To avoid that, our participation in the Mass must be active,conscious, full and motivated by faith, hope and love. Our gestures and clothing ought to convey the respect and joy of this moment for the guest of honor we receive into our midst is no less than Jesus Christ himself.
St. Augustine put it this way: “If you receive well, you are what you have received. … You hear the words, ‘the Body of Christ’ and you answer ‘Amen.’ Be therefore, members of Christ that your ‘amen’ may be true. Be what you see and receive what you already are.”