FOOD THAT COMFORTS
The reality of eating the body of Christ and drinking his blood is presented to our spirituality as more intriguing and dynamic each time. We start from the fact that the repetition of the Last Supper, with its different rites, is not a simple commemoration of what Jesus did with his disciples. It is a meal or a supper which, under its necessary weight of symbolism – bread and wine –, brings about a special presence of the Resurrected Christ, also with its weight of realism. This is what, finally, we express in its reality as a sacrament, sign or symbol, par excellence.
The sign is made effective when we come to communion with a hunger to fill ourselves totally with Christ, food that nourishes and prepares us for good works. We have to take on the reality of what Christ means in our life, to reproduce his way of being to others. The right personal disposition is shown in the generous attitude of going out of oneself, in the sense of an offering, of availability to be at the service of those most in need of our comforting presence. To strengthen myself with the Body of Christ, who satisfies this hunger, offering my own being to others, is the best dietetic of the sacrament as food. The hunger for Christ to come to us ought to reflect our attitude to go out of ourselves and to give ourselves to others, especially those who lack all support, who need to be comforted.
Christ is the food that comforts us on the journey of life, in the midst of our daily chores, on course to the realization of our most intimate aspirations of human achievement, only possible in the warmth of fraternity.
What is lacking in my life for the Eucharist to be an expression of my fraternity, without reservation, with all of my brothers and sisters?
