18th Sunday Year B

18th Sunday of the Year B– The Eucharist

Why is Holy Communion, the Eucharist important to us as Christians? What is it that is so important about this sacrament that we are asked to base our whole lives around it?

I ask this because I recall visiting my cousin, Tom Carmichael, in the weeks and months before he died to take him Holy Communion and after the services we began to speak about faith, our faith, our religion and what it was all about.

We spoke about what it is to be a Christian; what it means to be a Catholic Christian and what this whole business of living the life of a Catholic Christian was all about. He spoke of being brought up as a Catholic, an old-fashioned-Catholic, one who was taught the ‘Penny-Catechism and believed it to the full: who still sang the old hymns, Faith of Our Fathers and Onward Christian Soldiers to himself. One who served as an altar-boy when the mass was in Latin, and loved every minute of it.  One, he said, who had a simple faith based in and around the Holy Eucharist being the daily food for the daily journey. It was as simple and as complex as that. Tom said, with every ounce of faith and conviction that he had, that he was an old-fashioned-Catholic who believed in the simplicity of the Holy Eucharist and the simplicity of the promise that God made to the human race, that we were saved if we but believed.

It made me hark back to a time when I was growing up; when everything was a little – a lot – more formal in the church but being a lot more formal it was also a lot easier to follow; to understand; to accept. I was instructed in my faith and that is what I followed – religiously if you like.

But most of all, my conversation with Tom helped me to become grounded again within my faith. It helped me to see afresh the beauty of the Eucharist; the enormity of the sacrifice and the sacrament – that God could do so much for me a sinner, knowing who and what I am, what I have been and what I will be – and still offering me His Son to suffer and die so that my sins might be forever forgiven. That no matter how many wrong, or bad or poor choices I might make – He would always be there, ready, willing and able to pick me up, set me on my feet again and help me on my way, with spiritual food to strengthen me and to keep me sustained.

The Eucharist is our day’s food for our day’s journey. It is a sacrament that we can and should receive as often as possible because each and every time we receive it, we are strengthened with the grace of God; we are renewed in our faith and we are glorified in our spirit.

This is why when we leave church each weekend, we should be smiling; we should be rejoicing; we should be filled with every good thought and good will toward our brothers and sisters. Christ is alive in my heart, in my mind and in my spirit. That is the miracle of the Holy Eucharist.

Tom had a simple but rock-solid faith; one that was grounded and set in the Holy Eucharist and the knowledge that God so loved the world that he sent His only Son into it to save mankind, to save us, from sin. And he gave us the gift of the Holy eucharist to nourish us on our journey. He believed this with his whole heart, his whole mind and his whole spirit. When Tom died, having received the Sacrament of the Sick, including the gift of the Most Holy Eucharist, his day’s food for the final part of his journey to his Heavenly Father, he was at peace. Full and complete peace because he knew and believed that he had had been blessed to receive the most Holy Eucharist, the most holy of foods to see him on his way.

I take Holy Communion, the Holy Eucharist to several people each week as they are too sick or unwell to come to the church. And each time that I do, I can see their faces light up as they receive it. I can hear their voices raise in prayer and in confident belief that they have been blessed – blessed by the Holy Eucharist coming into their bodies and into their lives. I can see the visible changes in their postures as first they sit up and then as they relax having been fed with this most holy of foods. Their faith has made them well again. The most Holy Eucharist has nourished their every part.

Our gospel today is about the Holy Eucharist. It is about Christ introducing the idea of the Holy Eucharist to the five thousand and then explaining the true meaning of the feeding of their ancestors with manna from heaven: not from Moses, not from the sky and not somehow magically, but from God their Father in heaven. God had looked after them and fed them and made sure they could be saved. Christ was and is, here to do the same for them and for us.

He is our Bread of Life. He will ensure that we never go hungry if we but go to him in faith. He will ensure that we never ever thirst if we but believe in him. If we have faith and if we believe.

We need to recognise the gifts and the supports that we receive as direct results of our faith and give thanks to God for them and for their influences on and in our lives.

Like the young lady who was successful in her architecture exam and brought in the fruit and offering the other week in praise and thanksgiving to God. Or like another young lady who gave thanks for her harvest by and through her gifts of jams and biscuits. Small things you may say or think, but definite and deliberate things where they have expressed their thanks to God for the gifts they have received, where they have expressed their faith and belief as best as they can to and  for the church in which they worship.

Let us pray for the gift of this faith and belief, to see and feel this grace, this gift anew, as though for the first time and to raise our eyes, our hearts and our souls to God with thanks when we do.

Let us receive the Holy Eucharist and recognise it as the true food for our life’s journey. The bread of life that will sustain us throughout our life’s travel and challenges.

May the Body and Blood of Christ bring me everlasting life. Amen