During the
time our economy was doing better there were more jobs around and
naturally everyone was happy about that. Yet how is it that
despite those better times economically people didn’t seem to be
much happier? There seemed to be much more pressure on people
to ‘succeed’, people had less and less time for the ordinary
things. Everyone seemed to be mad busy trying to get money.
The rate of suicide increased and so did the rate of crime.
What was wrong? We thought we finally had it all together.
We are experts at looking
after the body, but most people are extremely ignorant when it comes
to looking after the spirit, or soul and we are body and soul.
As a result, no amount of money or work, or the right house or car,
will bring us happiness, because there is an emptiness inside us that
material things cannot fill and will never fill. This is the
spiritual side of ourselves which can only be fulfilled by what is
spiritual. Sometimes it takes a death, or serious illness, to
make us wake up to this. We will only be fulfilled in God
because God has created us this way.
In this
Gospel Jesus is talking about just this. He says, ‘If you do
not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you will not
have life in you.’ ‘Whoever eats me, will draw life from
me.’ Jesus himself is telling us that this is where we will
find fulfillment, in him whom we receive in the Eucharist, in Holy
Communion. This is why Jesus is constantly inviting us to spend
time with him and to receive him often. But we object, we don’t
have time… Let me tell you a short story.
When the
Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, had just begun,
there were only a few of them working, but there was a huge amount of
work to be done and they were really finding it hard to manage.
So they prayed to God and asked him to show them what they should
do. They felt that the Lord was telling them to spend an extra
hour a day in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; that is an extra
hour before the Blessed Sacrament and an hour less of work. But
they thought to themselves, ‘we already don’t have enough time to
work, so how can we give an extra hour to prayer?’ However,
since they really felt that this was what God was saying to them,
they decided they would try to be obedient to it. So they began
to give an extra hour a day to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and
an hour less to work. The interesting thing is that after
a short time many more people began to join the order and soon they
had lots of extra people to help them with the work. God will
never be outdone in generosity. If you give time to God He will
make it up to you.
Finally, it
is important to remember that while Jesus is humble enough to give
himself to us in Holy Communion, we should be careful about how we
approach him. He has come for sinners and we are sinners.
But if we receive him often we should also confess our sins often.
God has given us the gift of Holy Communion, but He has also given us
the gift of confession, so that we can be free of sin and so that we
can approach him as we should, with humility. This is one place
where we cannot demand our rights, because before God we have no
rights. Everything from God is a gift. So we should
confess to a priest, especially if there is something serious that we
have done. And we cannot say that we have no sins. St.
John says in one of his letters: ‘If anyone says they have not
sinned they are calling God a liar’ (1 John 1.10). This is God’s
word. If we feel emptiness within us, it is probably because
our spirits are starving. Jesus is the one who will fulfill us.
I am the bread of life. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood lives in me and I in them.
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