Discovering the Sacrament: Eucharist

I found Jesus in the Eucharist during my recent visit to US. Thanks to my sister Maria and all my nieces and nephews with whom I shared a conversation on Confession. Thanks to my sister Janet, through whom I attended the daily Mass and visited the Blessed Sacrament on multiple occasions. The whole thing initiated me to dig deeper into this Sacrament and discover something special after 43 years of being a Catholic. I feel lot of Catholics are in the same boat as I was, before I met Jesus and so I decided to share it through this blog.

The meaning of mass has changed for me as Eucharist is something special to me. Its about meeting Jesus everytime now. I no longer prefer it to say 'I am attending Mass'. I prefer it to say 'I am going to meet Jesus physically'. He will arrive at that moment when the priest says 'This is my body .. This is my blood'. Yes! Jesus will arrive. I am excited to go attend the mass because I will meet Jesus in person. To meet him everyday through the mass in person is an awesome opportunity.

I feel the same way as the woman who just wanted to touch the cloak of Jesus. She struggled through the crowd and did exactly that. When I receive the Eucharist, I feel like the man who could not walk for many years. Jesus meets him and tells him to Get up, pick up his mat and go home.

Prior to this, I was content with praise and worship, as it filled me with the Holy Spirit and really elevated me to feel closer to God. In praise and worship, God. the Holy Spirit comes into us. Yes it is an awesome experience. But I never knew what Mass was. It seemed like a ritual which really did not give me meaning until I understood what Eucharist is. Of course the ritual practice gave me a sense of God's peace and presence to a small extent.

When I knew what Eucharist meant, I was saying 'Wow! I will meet Jesus physically'. The thought of it gave me an elevated feeling, just like when Holy Spirit comes into me during praise and worship. As the Mass begins, I would tell myself 'Jesus will arrive'. Its a wonderful waiting time just as we wait for our love to arrive. And then at the moment, almost at the end of Mass, Jesus arrives. Before he arrived, we have confessed, we have sang a welcome song, we are marching in peace now to meet Jesus. The whole Mass takes a lively turn.

Jesus being there and me being in front of Jesus is an awesome feeling because I adore, love and worship him. To meet him in person makes it special because he is my God and I am meeting him physically. I realized that it made a lot of sense for God to be physically present to humans as humans probably understand that best. He chose to come down physically as Jesus. Even when he left, he chose to appear physically in the Eucharist for the sake of humans. When he will come again, he will choose to appear in some perceivable form. That is something every human being, whether a beggar or a rich man, whether a sinner or spiritual person understands. Yes, coming physically, in person is what billions of people all over the world understand. Isn't he an awesome God who does not keep to himself but he wants to meet us physically as well.

Now I understand that Eucharist is just a bread wafer and we never really see the person. But Jesus did and said the same thing when he first initiated this practice and asked us all to 'Do this in my memory until I come again'. Why did he say 'This is my body'. Why did he say 'This is my blood'. Why did he have the Eucharist? Jesus knew that being physically available will help us.

It is because the religious ritual down the ages has been the sacrifice of a live animal to God, in body and blood. So when everyone is sacrificing a live animal, here came Jesus to let us know that this Eucharist is as alive with his body and blood as the live animal would have. The difference being, in this Eucharist, Christ is sacrificing his body and blood everytime. Everytime, we eat and drink, we are eating his body and drinking his blood for the cleansing of sins. The process of bread wafer changing into his body and blood is called 'trans-substantiation'. The practice of killing live animal body and blood is no longer required to wash sins. Yes! only Jesus sacrifice is enough to wash our sins. Everytime we meet Jesus in the Eucharist, we are offering a sacrifice and having him in our body and blood to cleanse us of our sins. With time, I will discover more about this sacrament.

Go and meet Jesus personally in the Eucharist today. He appears at every Mass, in every Roman Catholic Church. He has given lot of powers and authority to his apostles and to all priests who chose to follow the path of apostles, which is towards Jesus. Every priest is an apostle of Jesus directly or indirectly. They come with a message. They also come with Jesus in the bread wafer which becomes alive.

Jesus is not only celebrated everywhere but he appears all over the world at every mass. God is meeting us and among us every single day, all over the world just as he was 2000 years ago. This miraculous event is happening right near us for most of us and we are not aware. Not having a mass around you, would be same as missing one opportunity to meet Jesus physically. Would you not run to meet him everyday if he was a real person? Remember how 5000 people flocked to see, hear and touch Jesus. You have that opportunity now. Attend Mass everyday to meet, see and touch him everyday.

God has made it easier for us through his death, through his sacrifice. Meet Jesus today! Meet Jesus everyday in person. Add him as a friend whom you want to meet everyday. Without the Eucharist, the mass loses its meaning. But with Eucharist, the mass is all about Jesus coming to meet you and you going to meet Jesus. With Eucharist, it is all about you repenting and getting your soul washed, ready for heaven.

Meet Jesus today in person whether you are Christian or not !!! The non-Catholics are refrained from having the Eucharist simply because it is Jesus and they need to accept Jesus in their lives else the Eucharist does not make sense. The best way to do this is get baptized and go through some classes of Communion. Yes it will take time, but since this is a big step to meet Jesus, preparation helps. After all, you are going to meet God in person and hence the relevance. Talk to a priest to help you. In any case, attend mass everyday to be in the presence of Jesus.

The presence of Jesus is in itself a mighty thing. Demons run away. Demons fear him. Come to Jesus. Don't worry what you have done in life. Go to meet him.

For Catholics, you are lucky or what. You are already baptized and already been through the Communion rituals. But I doubt, if you attend Mass as a ritual you never understand or you attend Mass to meet Jesus. I don't know how to prepare you. But work towards it. It does not matter what sins you have committed. Just meet Jesus everyday. His body, His blood will fill you, wash you, clean you everyday. After receiving Eucharist, we relive our new self.

Walk with Jesus even though you are weak, even though you falter. Our life is bigger than this earthly journey. Our 60 to 100 yrs of life is negligible compared to billions of years of this universe. A good study will reveal you that it will not make sense that our life is just limited to the earth. We know that there is lot to our body in the way we are. We are not only physical like a robot. We are beyond physical. Walk with Jesus and enrich your lives. Attend mass everyday no matter what stage of life you are in. Meet Jesus everyday in Mass physically, no matter what you are doing in life.

Check this video: https://www.facebook.com/mariodrcm/videos/1755297671366337/