Is The Eucharist Food?

 

I stumbled across recently something that I knew, but didn’t KNOW.  I’ve often heard it said that the Eucharist, the consecrated host which has turned into the Body and Blood of Christ, is food.  Some have said that a Catholic mass is like a gathering around a dinner table of the altar, and we share The Bread of Life.  It’s said that the manna in the desert pre-figured the Eucharist; the manna kept the Jews alive in the desert.  Well, really, it wasn’t JUST the manna, for God also gave them water.  Bread and water are said to be the basic foods of life.  The question which came to my mind recently was: If bread and water are the essence of foods for life, why didn’t Jesus say over bread and water at the Last Supper:  This is My Body and This is My blood?  Did He instead consecrate wine as His blood because it was red in color?  If so, that seems a pretty petty reason.  Why bread and wine?

What I stumbled across recently was the importance of wine to the people of Jesus’ time.  You can see it at the wedding feast at Cana; Jesus’ first miracle was changing water into wine.  Wine was needed to celebrate the wedding.  You drink wine to celebrate.  So, when at the Last Supper Jesus consecrated bread and wine into His Body and Blood, He was giving his apostles basic food of life --- bread and Jesus --- and the means of celebrating that life --- wine and blood, which He gave to them from the Cross.  Jesus’ giving of His Body and Blood to us, at the Last Supper and on the Cross, is a thing to celebrate, for now Satan and the power of death were defeated; now the gates of heaven were open for us to enter.  Of course, there is lots more to be said about that, but the point which newly caught my attention was that reason for the usage of wine, versus water.  When I receive the Eucharist at mass, or when I go into the Adoration Chapel to adore Jesus’ presence in that Host before me, I will try to remember that He indicated this is not just something to be seen with reverence and awe, it is something to celebrate.  When we see movies about Jesus’ Passion, they are produced to cause us sadness at what God had to do for us, all the pain and suffering.  They rarely touch upon WHY He chose to do that, which is a cause for celebration.

We often forget that suffering FOR THE RIGHT REASON is a good thing.   There are lots of examples of common people doing this, heroes in war, bone marrow donors, or people who make financial sacrifices for others.  One thing many don’t understand is that even if we don’t see a reason --- why is this happening? --- we can create a good reason: “Jesus, I offer my pains to be joined with Yours for the souls of sinners.”  I’ve often heard it said that complaining about suffering is a waste; offer it up.

Well, I seem to have run astray from my original topic, but on a kind of related matter … I just listened to Fr. John Riccardo’s latest 20-minute podcast titled: Make Time for Beauty (#143 at www.actsxxix.org).  Fr. John is recovering from Covid and He had time to read and reflect during his illness, and one thing that he reflected on was Beauty.  In beauty, whether in sunsets, fall colors, or magnificent art (like The Pieta statue in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome), all beauty can open our hearts to the awe we yearn for.  Beauty is a reflection of God, and yearning for it is part of how we were created.  It’s kind of a basic thing, like the eating of bread and water, only much more enjoyed when it is bread and wine.  It is awesome.  It’s a beautiful thing.