Jesus says in today's Gospel: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I willl raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." (Jn 6: 54-55) The Eucharist is for eating and drinking! He does not ask, primarily, that we worship his Sacred Body and Precious Blood. That is a consquence of understanding the enduring character of the Eucharisti species. No, he wants us to eat and to drink. This I think is because by eating and drinking we are united to him: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." (Jn 6: 56) It is not, therefore, a question of nourishment but of Communion. The reception of Eucharist binds us more perfectly to him and to one another. As we hear from St Paul: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." (1 Cor 10: 17) I prefer to think of the Eucharist less as a reward for moral probity and more as a instrument and sign of Covenant. None of us can ever be worthy of the Eucharist yet the attitudes and desires of those who wish to be true disciples of Christ are essential to a fruitful partaking in the mystery of Christ's Body and Blood. The behaviour of the disciples towards each other, St Paul tells us, is relevant to how we receive Eucharist: "When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord's supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!" (1 Cor 11: 21-22) There is no room for individualism, political division or class distinctions in the Mass. By eating and drinking we are made one and that unity means we treat one another as brothers and sisters of the one family.
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