Living Eucharist to Eucharist

Louisa Ikena reflects on living life looking forward to Eucharistic nourishment over and above earthly pleasures and comforts.

Is it Friday yet? How close are we to the weekend? To a holiday? To a long vacation? Can anyone relate to such questions echoing both inside and outside of us?

I perceive our society insists that we live Friday to Friday, holiday to holiday, and vacation to vacation. We wait and wait for Friday to come. Then we wait and wait for Friday to be over. And then we wait and wait for Friday to come again. I even have recently overheard Thursday referred to as “Friday Eve.” What’s missing in this picture? A whole lot is missing, to put it succinctly. When I find myself living Friday to Friday, I am out of alignment with God’s will for me.

The thing about being out of alignment with God is that I’m always the one who needs to move. I pray a prayer like, “God, please bring me back into alignment with Your will.” I believe God delights in such a prayer. And I believe that the faith behind it, though small, can move mountains. All it takes is faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20-21).

Many things can be blocking me on my faith journey. The most obvious to me is sin, missing the mark. I fall short of the perfection of Jesus, our sinless Savior. More things that can block me on my way are pleasure, pride, power, or comfort. Each can be expressed in a healthy way, including pride experienced as a healthy, balanced self-love. Each can also be experienced in an extreme, sinful way as an idol, our own golden calf taking the place of God in our lives.

When I’m living Friday to Friday, I am living comfort to comfort. For me, I can easily lapse into living hot shower to hot shower. And it’s very much a First World problem for me when the hot water goes out for any reason. But what I’ve been taught is to praise God no matter what. Hot shower, cold shower, no water pressure, any day of the week, and any condition is meant to evoke from my heart, “Praise God!” How is such an evocation possible? It’s possible when I invite God in. It’s possible when I am living for God. God is Lord of my life.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me.” (Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

Yes, I need to work on my daily spiritual condition with fear and trembling and more and more I want to do so out of a motivation of love.

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Our Lord loves us to the infinite degree. He cannot love us any more and chooses not to love us any less. Jesus gave everything for us, His entire life. And He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist to nourish us every day. When I receive His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist, I am blessed beyond measure.

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The thing about being out of alignment with God is that I’m always the one who needs to move. #CatholicMom

There are times in my life I’ve taken the gift of the Eucharist for granted. Many, many people around the world have very limited access to Our Lord in the Eucharist. Some can only receive Him once a month due to priest shortages and geographic difficulties. Some, who could receive daily Communion, cannot do so due to scheduling limitations. There are many other limiting factors.

What would happen if more of us arranged our schedules to make daily Mass a priority? What if we stepped out in faith and did what we can, when we can? When we are fed by the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation in the consecrated bread and wine, what could Our Lord do through us?

I, for one, have decided to find out. Instead of living Friday to Friday, I have decided to live Eucharist to Eucharist. I first encountered this concept when I listened to a talk on the Eucharist in college at Catholic University. It’s only taken me about 25 years or so to fully embrace this concept, but here I am. The Eucharist is the Source and Summit of the Christian life (CCC 1324). The Eucharist is the highlight of my day today, one day at a time.

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