Why the Eucharist is Important

The Eucharist: The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ

This Sunday is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus or Corpus Christi. It celebrates the institution of the Eucharist and was decreed by Pope Urban IV in 1264. The popes who followed him, Clement V and John XXII, also urged observance of this feast.

This feast reminds us to have reverence for the most sacred gift God has given us, his son Jesus. I often wonder what I would be like if I did not have the Eucharist. He truly is my Source and Summit and it is only because he lives in me that I am the person I am today. In John 6:52 Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Jesus has given us himself so that we can have life and not only here on earth but with him in heaven for all eternity. Without the Eucharist I am weak and worldly. A deacon I knew said that for him, the Eucharist was his “energy pill” and what helped him throughout his day, no matter how long or difficult. I need Jesus; I need to receive him and then I need to go out and share him with others.

Whether I receive Jesus in Holy Communion or sit in his presence, I know I am changed. It may be a major change or something almost imperceptible, but I am changed. I pray that all of us who receive Jesus in his Body and Blood know who we are receiving and then go forth to fill the world with his presence as he has filled us.