Friday - 3rd Week of Easter 2017 - Life-giving effects of the Eucharist

Last week, remember, we read through the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus in which Jesus speaks of supernatural birth for his followers, a second birth, in which we are born anew to the supernatural life of the Spirit.

This week, we’ve read through the Bread of Life discourse in which Jesus teaches us not of supernatural rebirth, but supernatural food—food that will sustain the life of the spirit

The Eucharist truly is the bread of life; the Eucharist produces life in us because the Eucharist IS Jesus Christ who is Our Life. The Eucharist truly is superabundant in life it effects in our souls.

The Eucharist sustains the supernatural life begun at baptism. When the body is deprived of food it languishes and dies; and it is the same with the soul, the Eucharist sustains supernatural life in us, as Jesus says, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have life within you.”

The Eucharist is our pledge of eternal life and resurrection: He who receives Eucharist, Christ will “raise up on the last day”. St. Ignatius of Antioch said is “the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ”

The Eucharist restores the soul which has become weakened by venial sin. St. Ambrose said Holy Communion “is a remedy for our daily infirmities”. The damage we do to our souls through venial sin is restored through Holy Communion.

The Eucharist is also a “spiritual vaccine” protecting the soul from the assaults of temptation. St. Cyprian, writing in the early third century, says Christians imprisoned and tortured for the name of Christ received from the hand of the Bishop the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, so they would not yield to a Roman prosecutor and deny their faith. Before going on trial, they pleaded, “Give me Communion, so I’ll be able to resist.” From the very beginning of the Church, this was the reason Holy Communion was brought to the Christians in prison, that they could be strengthened in their persecution and temptations.

The Eucharist helps us to persevere in faith at the hour of our death. This is why the Eucharist is brought to the dying.

And the Eucharist increases sanctifying grace in our souls: helping us to love with the heart of Christ, making our lives more pleasing to God.

As the Catechism teaches: “The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself”

Through the Eucharist, may the life of Christ in us continue to be sustained, nourished, strengthened, and increased for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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By offering His Body and Blood for us, Jesus reconciles the world to the Father. Therefore, we can present our needs to God with confidence.

That the Church, which draws her life from the Eucharist, may worship this mystery with ever deeper faith and devotion, we pray to the Lord...

That Christians may always approach the Eucharist worthily, in full communion with the teachings and practices of the Church, we pray to the Lord...

For Catholics who have fallen away from the Eucharist, that they may know the grace of sincere repentance and return to the table of the Lord.

That all God's children may have sufficient bread for their physical life and the Bread of Life for their spiritual life, we pray to the Lord...

That those who have died may share the eternal life that Jesus promised to those who feed on the Bread from Heaven, we pray to the Lord...