Eat My Flesh
The belief that when we go to communion we receive the body and blood of Christ is central to our faith. Jesus was very clear and demanding when he said “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”
Many people left Jesus when He said this and did not explain it away. Jesus turned to his apostles and asked, “Will you leave me, too?” Peter replied, speaking for all of them, “To whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life.”
Jesus just told them that whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, so Peter was accepting that that was what he needed to do. Peter wasn’t just making a throwaway statement, he was quite a statement of faith precisely because he did not understand how this could be true.
He gave us the bread of life by which we can be nourished in our faith in Jesus, by feeding on his body and blood. Can we accept that, or will we join the crowd in walking away?
God gives us every moment of our lives to prepare for our eternal life with Him. God has wonderful plans for us, as he did for Deacon Michael. We need our food for the journey.
Laura Weston, widow
IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG WHILE YOU LISTEN
You know, I've said to you that my favorite saint, one of my favorite saints, is St. Stephen, the deacon. Logically though, you would think that St. Paul would be one of my favorites. And I think one of the reasons that St. Paul and I don't get that along that well... I can read the letters of St. Paul and go, "What are you saying?"… you know, I'd get into arguments with St. Paul... is that we're so much alike.
Now this requires me to go back. When I got married to my dear wife, many, many years ago, I wasn't Catholic. And for a long period after that period of time, I was not Catholic.
Now, you would think the normal process of becoming Catholic is I would go, "Okay, I decided I'm going to become a Catholic." And she never nagged me about it. Probably she made it known. She kept on praying and things like that.
But no. I'm lying in bed, it happened to be in Cancun, Mexico, and all of a sudden, and I don't know what it is and I can't explain it, I was filled with the certainty that I was going to be Catholic. And that was it. That was the last moment I had doubts at all. It just was there.
Being who I am, I said to my wife... this was at 3:00 in the morning, by the way... I said, "Laura, I'm going to be Catholic." She said, "Why?!" I said, "I don't know. It's the grace of God." At which point she says, "What! He just used the expression, grace of God. Something must have happened!" Then she said, "Go back to sleep."
So I come back and I say, "Well, what do I need to do to become Catholic?" At that point Fr. Bradley was a friend of mine. He still is a friend of mine. So I went to Fr. Bradley and he said, "Don't worry about it. I'll bring you into the Church." That's why, Betty, I talk about Fr. Bradley. He did that exactly.
So Fr. Bradley, knowing me, gave me a stack of books about this high, which was absolutely wonderful. Later the priest at St. Monica thanked Fr. Bradley saying, "We're sure glad that you didn't have Michael go through RCIA with Laura along. That would have been nothing but trouble. You did it the right way."
So, I'm questing. I'm going on. I become Catholic. It was a wonderful thing. It was a very small ceremony but a wonderful thing. I go to Confession for the first time. And the priest, who shall remain anonymous because he is probably embarrassed that he would say something like this, I went through whatever it is that I had done, and I said, "I'm a convert. I'm a recent convert. I fell like there's something more." And he says, "Don't worry. There is. Just be patient."
Now what I didn't realize was that before the time I became Catholic, there were people at St. Monica Church talking about I was one of the prospective deacons of the Church.
So, there's my conversion story. And I started doing crazy things, you know, from my perspective. I became an usher. Oh, best job ever! But I had this certainty, a sense of completeness, that there was something more. And I tell people, I just didn't have the sense to stop. And I ended up being a deacon. I volunteered to do things. I've told you the story of Parkland Hospital. And so going through my life of these things that these are the right things to say.
Now, I will say that for the last ten years every time that we get a new priest in, a visiting priest who's going to be here for a while, I am always saying, "Would you…” to deacons and everybody, and I have not succeeded until now. I always said, "Are you interested in helping with the 6:30 Communion Service?", because that's what it was. Until along come the grace of God again and this man I met, met him when he was here from Suriname, for a conference they were having, and he came back. And I said, "Would you be interested in coming to our 6:30 Communion Service?"... I'm sure I said that... "and do Mass?" And he said, "Yes."! What! Okay!
This is St. Paul. This happened to St. Paul all the time. And he says, "This will be good practice for English. I only speak French. Well, primarily speak French."
And God brings to me these marvelous things. Fr. Franck comes to me. I've been able to work with him. Have you noticed how well he is doing with English compared to where he was when he started? It's absolutely remarkable.
And I go through my life this way. Of tripping through things. And being able, you know, people come up to me, it's been a while and they say, "Do you remember when you said such and such?" Like Fr. Bradley I go, "I would never say that." But I do.
That's part of being a Catholic. This is part of what happens to St. Paul. He gets up in front of a bunch of Jews and tells them the wonder of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And they want to kill him. Eventually they do kill him.
He gets among the Gentiles and they are going, "Hey! That's pretty good stuff."
You never know. You never know. But the bottom line of all of this is, the Jews were asking, they were quarreling among themselves saying, it says, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
That's not really what they were asking. How can this man want us to be a bunch of cannibals? We're not supposed to eat human flesh. It's not logical. It doesn't work. You don't go around and say, "Well, you know, well Mayve you're kind of looking plump today. We can probably put you in with an apple in your mouth and you'll be delicious.
No, that's not what we do. That is one of the reactions that humans have. No, you don't eat each other. So what does Jesus do? He comes along and says, "Eat me. I'm the Bread of Life."
This is the very core of our faith. This is the very core of why we get up at 6:30 in the morning. This is the very core of why I get up at 6:30 in the morning.
If I weren't here, I'd be going to Mass over at St. Monica, which would drive me crazy.
Because Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to St. Paul the understanding of who he was, and the Bread of Life.
He gives to each one of us in our own way, the understanding of who He is and what does He mean to us. "Who do you say I am?" And gives us His Body and Blood. His flesh. We're supposed to gnaw on it. It's supposed to be a gristly reality of dealing with the reality of Christ through the Body and Blood of Christ.
And it is in the reality of our existence, the reality of St. Paul, that all of the things that he experienced and all of the things he did, and all of the things I want to argue with him about, but it is in that reality that he becomes a great saint.
And it is in the reality of our existence, of taking what Christ gives us, His revelation, and living it and persevering through it, and bringing ourselves ever closer to Him. But at the core, it's the marvelous mystery that right now, within probably the next five to ten minutes, we're going to be consuming the Body and Blood of Christ. And it is in that, the beliefs and the consumption of Christ, that we find the promise of eternal life.
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