A week earlier we had taken a religion test and one of the short answer questions was: "What is the Eucharist?" So, being the typical seventh graders we were, this seemed like an easy question. Most of our answers were along the lines of, "The Eucharist is a symbol of Jesus," or "The Eucharist symbolizes the last supper and Jesus giving of himself."
So, when our teacher came in jumping up and down yelling, "Jesus IS the Eucharist!!! It's not a symbol!!! Jesus IS the Eucharist!!!" We seriously thought she had gone off the deep end.
See, the thing with catholics is that we see the Eucharist as a little wafer and think "symbol." that's because, well, let's be honest, it looks like cardboard, feels like cardboard, and tastes like cardboard, we think "how can this be Jesus?" It took me a long time before I believed that the Eucharist was really Jesus. In seventh grade, I couldn't figure out why my teacher was getting so worked up about a silly test. Yes, everyone in the class got that question wrong, but I couldn't see how she could really believe that little wafer was Jesus.
"When Our Lord said, "This is My body," the entire substance of the bread was changed into His body; and when He said, "This is My blood," the entire substance of the wine was changed into His blood." (Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism)
This is kinda a crazy concept for us to grasp. And why would Jesus want to be a piece of bread? Well, think about it, God became food that we eat, and people eat a lot. And when we eat, food litterally becomes a part of us. It goes into blood stream, our skin, our cells, into our very being. God chose the best way to be consumed into our very person because He wanted to be as close to us as possible.
"In the Holy Eucharist we become one with God like food with the body"
Saint Francis De Sales
When we recieve the Eucharist we recieve Jesus, as catholics we believe that Jesus is fully in the Eucharist. So, like my teacher said, "Jesus IS the Eucharist!" At Christ's words, "This is My body," all limitations are stripped away and we stand in the very presence of God It is at the Eucharist that we make Saint Paul's wish our own: "All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, in hope that I myself will be raised from death to life" (Philippians 3:10-11, Good News Bible)
"Not to go to Communion is like someone dying of thirst beside a spring."
St. John Vianney
