This past Sunday at church, after I had received Holy Communion and was praying, I saw the visiting priest put the Eucharist in the hand of a young girl. However, as he went to place it, she moved her hand and the Host fell on the ground.
I instantly gasped.
Quick as a flash, though, the priest picked up the Eucharist and consumed Jesus and then smiling gently, he placed another Host in her hand.
I told my son yesterday when we were doing his religion lesson that I gasped because I know what the Eucharist isโitโs Jesus. Iโve never gasped when ordinary bread falls on the ground.
Yesterday I received this comment from a guy who has recently shown up to make a โcomplete mockery of your claims.โ
He said, โYou are mistaken, your lifeless wafer isn’t the Lord.โ
Though he is always mistaken in his claims, he is right about one thing: He does mock Our Lord.
Now that Iโm Catholic, it always amazes me how non-Catholics try to limit Godโs power even though I used to do the same thing.
I used to see the Eucharist as mere bread, just a symbol. Nothing significant had changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Christ didnโt take it up a notch with the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Nope, it was purely symbolicโa nice remembrance gesture.
There I was limiting God. Christ had risen from the dead, performed numerous miracles, but turn bread and wine into His Body and Blood so that we could have His Divine Life in us? Nah. He couldnโt or wouldnโt do that.
Before becoming Catholic, in defiance, I went up one time to receive the Eucharist because, โnobody was going to tell me I couldnโt.โ
The moment I consumed the Host in my pride and smug arrogance, I felt instantly horribleโphysically, mentally, and spiritually. I couldnโt understand it. If it was a โlifeless waferโ why did I feel so awful?
Today, I know why. The Eucharist is Christ and I had taken Him not out of reverence, gratitude, and humility, but out of sacrilegious pride. That experience opened my eyes and I was humbled.
Thankfully, that led me into the Catholic Church where I get to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist. May we always treat the reality of Our Lord in the Eucharist with reverence and gratitude, Catholic Pilgrims.
Be blessed this Thursday.
**Adoration Chapel at St. Matthewโs in downtown DC.