This past Youth Group with the high school teens really revitalized my soul. It was a night of saying "Praise God" for these teens are amazing. Our focus of the night was on the Eucharist and John Chapter 6. To sum up the Chapter "Mary Style":
After Jesus had performed the miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes, he tries to tell the Jews that he is the everlasting food. "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
But the people murmured and argued about what He said. Then Jesus said again, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
But still the people argued about what he was saying to them. Now at this point Jesus didn't say "Wait guys, I was just kidding about the eat my flesh stuff. If it makes you more comfortable, just look at it as a symbolic thing." No, Jesus states for a third time, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him."
After that, people told him that what he was saying was "hard to believe", but Jesus made no excuses for what he said. He knew that there would be those who would then leave him.
This chapter in John is the rock that steadies my belief in the Eucharist. It is not a symbol of Christ, it is not something just to remember the last supper, it is the true presence of Christ celebrated every mass.
Last night we had a teen named Joseph give a testimony on his experience with the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He really blew me away with his faith and growth! I know that it took me until I was in college to really start to believe in the Eucharist, and here he was just in high school already feeling the power of the host!
Joseph told a story about a Lutheran service that he went to recently. The speaker was a former military man that was talking about times when they used Goldfish and grape juice as symbols of the last supper. Joseph said that his faith in the Catholic Church was renewed, because he could tell that others were really missing out with their services. They didn't have or believe in the real presence of Christ. He had us imagine going up to receive at our church and the communion minister saying to you, "Receive the Snack that Smiles Back!"
Today I hold onto the joy of receiving Christ every week and hope that someday everyone will see and receive the Eucharist for what it really is. AMEN!
