There are so many mysteries revealed by God for our good. The Eucharist is one of those mysteries, revealed to us by Jesus, so that we can share in God’s divine life. Jesus termed it “Bread come down from heaven”. Earthly elements, made by human hands—bread and wine—become by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the sacred words of Jesus and by the plan of the Father the Body and Blood of Jesus, the heavenly food sustaining us on a pilgrimage to eternity.

 

Like the other mysteries of God, faith is the only path to acceptance without fully understanding the reality before us. Tertullian once said, “I believe it because it is unbelievable.”

 

Faith frees us to consume the Lamb of God. Unlike ordinary food, which when eaten become part of us, when we partake of Body and Blood of Jesus, we become part of the Body of Jesus. We are united to and in him in a sacramental, mysterious way.

 

St Augustine explained it thus. “My friends, these realities are called sacraments because in them one thing is seen, while another is grasped. What is seen is a mere physical likeness; what is grasped bears spiritual fruit.” In another place he says: “If we receive the Eucharist worthily, we become what we receive.”  It is his life in us that transforms us.  What a mystery!