Breaking of The Bread
In the Gospel today, Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples “in the breaking of the bread” on the road to Emmaus. Notice that the disciples don’t fully recognize or appreciate the risen Savior until they encounter Him in the Eucharist. It’s one thing to know about the resurrection of Jesus, it’s another thing to be united to and participate in His resurrection.
Whenever we receive the Blessed Sacrament, we consume Jesus’ resurrected, glorified body under the appearance of bread and wine. We eat the flesh and drink the blood of the God who became man, died, and rose again. The body that we eat is the same body that hung on the cross, lay in the tomb, and then rose from the dead. That body is the same body that was revealed to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel. It’s the same body that ascended into heaven and is currently sitting at the right hand of the Father.
The Eucharist is the seed of eternal life in us. Whenever we eat an apple, for example, that apple is assimilated into our bodies and becomes a part of us. When we consume the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion, on the other hand, the opposite happens: we are ever more assimilated into Christ’s Mystical Body. It is through this mysterious exchange of grace that the Eucharist becomes the instrumental cause of our resurrection. It works in our souls as both food and medicine, feeding us with God’s life, healing our souls of the effects of venial sin, and making us, day by day, into saints.
Receiving our Lord’s Body and Blood, therefore, is the beginning of eternal life in us. As the Catechism puts it, the Eucharist is “the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection” (CCC 1524). Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:53-56).
As we worship and receive our risen Lord in the Eucharist today, may our hope for our own future resurrection be kindled; may our love for God and our appreciation of His sacrifice for us be deepened; and may we not only know about the resurrection of Jesus, but be united to it and participate in it.