The Eucharist: A totally unexpected gift

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Lance Schneider

Many of us have come to expect gifts on Christmas, our birthdays, and special occasions such as graduation. But the most special gifts are those that are totally unexpected.

A gift represents a self-giving of oneself, usually out of love for the recipient. This Sunday's Gospel reading talks about just such a gift. It talks about the total self-giving of Jesus to humankind, out of a selfless love for both us and His Father.

In the past weeks, we have heard of the miracle that Jesus performed in the multiplication of loaves. The miracle enabled 5,000 to eat from five barley loaves and two fish. The purpose behind the miracle was twofold.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006) Prv 9:1-6 Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 Eph 5:15-20 Jn 6:51-58

First, Jesus wanted those who had gathered around Him to believe in Him as the Son of Man. Second, by His power to perform miracles they would come to have faith in His message.

As the spectators were being physically nourished by the abundance of bread and fish, they were also being nourished by His words. Jesus showed that He is life, that He is the nourishment that sustains us, and His words have the power to save and heal.

This miracle was intended to open our minds and hearts so that we can understand the essence of His words, thus enabling us to hear His message of hope and love. In John's Gospel, Jesus shares with us these words, "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."

These words foretell the gift to be received in the Eucharist. As the bread and fish and Jesus' words physically and spiritually nourished the early spectators, the Eucharist physically and spiritually nourishes us today.

The word unless is central to Jesus' message; our life in Jesus is conditional on our acceptance of His message. Accepting His message means that not only must we believe in His words, but we must live His words; Jesus must live in us as we live in Jesus.

What does this mean for us? For Jesus to live in us and for us an exchange must take place: our cross for His cross. We must die to ourselves as Jesus died to Himself.

To eat of His flesh means to suffer for our fellow man as Jesus suffered for us; we must eat of His suffering, His pain. By eating His flesh we are nurtured by His wisdom and love; we grow in awareness of the truth, enabling ourselves to recognize those shortcomings that weaken our relationship with Jesus.

	Reflection questions • Do you believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist? • How has the Eucharist nourished you both physically and spiritually? • When we consume the Eucharist, we partake in Christ's gift to us. What gift can we offer Christ in exchange?

When we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we are making a pledge to give of ourselves as Jesus gave of Himself: a pledge to grow in love for our fellow man, to give selflessly of ourselves in charitable love, out of love for Jesus and our earnest desire to serve Christ as Christ served His Father.

The Eucharist is an unexpected gift; it is a selfless gift that has been freely given to all of humankind. This gift kindles within the hearts of men their faith in Jesus and His call to conversion, a conversion that is inspired by His promise of salvation and made possible by His obedient death on the cross.

Lance Schneider is a seminarian for the Madison Diocese. He attends Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, Ill. He will be ordained as a transitional deacon with three other seminarians for the diocese in June of 2007.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

Faith Alive! is published bi-weekly during the summer. The next Faith Alive! will appear in the August 24, 2006 issue of the Catholic Herald.