Several pivotal truths are contained in the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. One of these is that the Eucharist is Christ’s unconditional gift to us. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus said, “the living bread that came down from heaven….If anyone eats this bread he will live forever….the bread that I will give is my flesh that the world may have life.”
As we receive Christ’s self-gift we live more intimately with Christ, his eternal Father, and the Holy Spirit. We become one with Christ as a Eucharistic people. The love and grace and friendship of Christ are never far away. With St. Paul we can say: “I live, now not I, but Christ lives within me.” St. Ignatius insisted that his new religious order be called “the Society of Jesus.”
—Fr. Walter Stohrer, SJ is a resident at the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, WI.