Sustenance

Since becoming Catholic again almost 15 years ago, the one thing that has continually and consistently sustained me on my journey of faith is the Eucharist.

Each Sunday I am welcomed to the table with Him and each Sunday I get to re-live the Last Supper, to re-live, ‘This is my body, this is my blood, do this in memory of me’.

There were times when I struggled with the idea of transubstantiation and talked about the Eucharist as symbol. However, there is nothing more profound or key to my faith than acknowledging the presence of Christ in that holy meal.

Each mass, I get to break bread with disciples, as He did, and be connected through the golden thread of Church history back to that moment, in an upper room where He celebrated Passover with the Twelve. And by virtue of this Passover celebration, be connected to thousands of years of Passovers before. I get to celebrate at the table with unleavened bread and wine as so many have for centuries before and after Him, connected to a religion which reaches back to prophets and miracles and a people’s desire to honor and to live God’s will.

 

Each Sunday I am welcomed at the table of the Lord. Each Sunday I break bread with disciples, when the priest holds up bread and wine and requests that each one of us take it because this is His body, which has been given up for us.

Each Sunday I am welcomed to the table of the Lord with my family, my friends, and my neighbors. Each one of us, fallible in every sense of the word, together receiving Him, fed by bread and wine, made whole by sacrifice, nourished to continue.