How is the Eucharist food for the journey?
Catechism Meditation:
What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh “given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit,” preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum. ―No. 1392
REFLECTION: The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist was instituted as a food, a spiritual food. That is why the outward sign of this sacrament—the appearances of bread and wine—is a sign of nourishment, just as in Baptism the outward sign is water, a sign of cleansing. The action by which we as individuals receive the Holy Eucharist is an act of eating. We swallow the appearances of bread and wine under which Christ is present. This is the action which we call Holy Communion.
Receiving Holy Communion offers a myriad of profound benefits that resonate deeply within the hearts and souls of believers. This sacramental union of ourselves with Christ is more than the mere physical union between our body and the Sacred Host which we have swallowed. More importantly, it is a mystical and spiritual union of the soul with Christ. This is produced in the soul by our physical contact with the sacred Body of Christ. This sacred sacrament serves as a means of fostering unity with Christ and the community of faith, a channel for the forgiveness of sins, and a catalyst for the strengthening of faith. As believers partake in the Eucharist, they are invited to enter into a transformative encounter with the living presence of Christ, experiencing the profound grace and love that emanate from this sacred act.
The Eucharist is not merely a symbol or a ritual but a source of spiritual nourishment. Just as physical food sustains our bodies, the Eucharist nourishes our souls. It is a sacred banquet where we encounter Christ’s love, mercy, and grace. Through the reception of the Eucharist, we are united with Christ and strengthened in our faith, finding solace, healing, and renewal. Simply put, the Eucharist is food for our journey home, food that helps us to survive the hostile desert of this world and arrive safely at our heavenly homeland.
PRAYER. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the spiritual nourishment we receive through Holy Communion.
Timeless Wisdom Quote:
“As a man must be born before he can begin to lead his physical life, so he must be born to lead a Divine Life. That birth occurs in the Sacrament of Baptism. To survive, he must be nourished by Divine Life; that is done in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.” ― Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen