Real Food, Real Drink

My Flesh is real Food, my Blood is real Drink

JESUS, I trust in you!

The other day, our parish operations manager called my attention to the fact that our fried rice left on the table during the entire day did not spoil. Apparently, it was fake or plastic rice. The issue of fake rice is trending in the social media. Considering the fact that rice is our staple food, anything about it will turn out to be a great concern for all of us. Fake rice does not give nourishment. It does not deliver the nutrients it promises. And because it is plastic, it is even dangerous to our health.

In the Holy Gospel, the Lord Jesus tells us that what he gives us is not fake but true: “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” The Feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In the Eucharist, Jesus is truly present: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In other words, the entire Person of Jesus is present in a real way in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. We can rely on this because the one who said “This is my Body” and “This is the chalice of my Blood” is the one who said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Being the Truth, Jesus cannot and will not lie. And his resurrection from the dead is the very affirmation of the truth of all that he taught us.

Because Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, we can offer the Father true worship. The Mass is the only genuine sacrifice that is accepted by God. Here, we offer to the Father his only begotten Son, his Beloved in whom he is well pleased. In the Mass, Christ’s humble obedience unto death is made present – the same humble obedience that pleases the Father. We do not offer the Father a symbol or a token of Christ’s obedience. Rather, we offer to him Jesus himself, the obedient One, the humble One, the Father’s Beloved One.

Because Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, our communion with him is genuine. We remain in him and he remains in us. In Christ and through the working of the Holy Spirit, we are united to the Father and also among ourselves. The Eucharist perfects our communion with God the Father by identification with his only Son through the working of the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist, “the mystery (of communion) is so perfect that it bring us to the heights of every good thing: here is the ultimate goal of every human desire, because here we attain God and God joins himself to us in the most perfect union.” (Nicolas Cabisilas in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 34.)

Because Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, we are assured of eternal life: “He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day…Just as the Father who has life sent me and I have life because of the Father, so the man who feeds on me will have life because of me.” He who has risen as he promised will be true to his promise: “The man who feeds on this bread shall live forever.”

Because the Eucharist is real and not fake, “it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist.” (EDE, 34.) Let us not be indifferent to this great gift of Christ to us. Let us prepare ourselves for every Mass we assist in and for every Communion we receive. Remember what the Eucharist is: the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. The Eucharist is truly Jesus. There is this pop song whose lyrics I remember: "I did not know I was starving till I tasted you." Let us taste and see the goodness of the Lord!

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!