The Jews quarreled among themselves,
saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “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. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because
of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from
heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread
will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in
Capernaum.
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Reflection:
Are you a regular Sunday Mass goer or even
a daily Mass goer? How do you feel if you fail to be at Holy Mass? Do you feel
that something is lacking in your system of being? If your answer is yes, you
have this feeling not because you miss a routinary activity.
Truth be told, you have this feeling
because you miss to be with Jesus. And you miss to partake of the Body and
Blood of Jesus which (you may not know) is the source of your every Sunday and
daily nourishment.
How many times have you been to Holy Mass
without paying attention to what’s going on during the celebration? Perhaps
countless times already, what do you do after noticing that your attention was
not in the Mass? Do you say sorry to Jesus and then make it a point to be
attentive again?
In every Holy Mass/online Mass that we
attend we should see to it that our full attention is in the sacred celebration.
So that when the part comes that we are about to partake of His body our focus
is centered on what we are about to receive. Which is no other than the most
precious bread in the entire world because we receive the life giver, Jesus
Himself.
Perhaps you may not believe this now
because you are still young, healthy and perhaps you have money and power. And
these temporal things serve as your security blanket right now. However when
the time comes that you are already old and sickly. You will know that nothing
matters anymore except the Bread of life, Jesus Himself. You will not desire
anything except to partake of His Body which will become the source of your
daily nourishment.
Why wait for that time to come in the
future? When you can already desire to be close to Jesus by faithfully
partaking of His Body and Blood now and onwards? Why make the temporal
things of this world your security blanket? When you can make the Body of
Christ your security blanket now? Yes now. – Marino J. Dasmarinas