One of our religious education instructors was teaching the children about the importance of praying before meals. She asked the children if they prayed before eating. One student quickly raised his hand and said, “Oh, I never do that because my mother is a great cook!”
Fortunately, the teacher was sharp enough to respond, “It is because she is a good cook that you should say a prayer of thanksgiving before and after your meal.”
Most of us were taught early in life to say a prayer before and after meals. And that is what we gather at Mass to do: to say a special communal prayer before an incredibly special meal. This special meal is not breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but the Eucharist.
Eucharist is a Greek word that translates into what English word? That’s right, it means thanksgiving.
On the food chain list, the Eucharist can truly be considered a “smart food.”
It is the smart foods we eat and the smart liquids we drink each day that sustain and nourish us, helping us to grow healthy and strong.
One of the most famous quotes that we have heard since childhood is, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Ben Franklin is credited with saying that. Although he did not know it at the time, apples contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, which have been shown to lower blood pressure, strengthen the respiratory and nervous systems and help prevent cancer, to name just a few.
We can paraphrase Ben Franklin’s expression with, “The Eucharist each day keeps evil away.”
Last week I spoke about the scripture passage from John 3:16. Do you remember it? “God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” I know many of you have memorized that passage.
This week, I suggest you memorize another passage from John, this time from Chapter 6. It is the opening verse in today’s Gospel: “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.”
A few verses later, we heard, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” You will also want to have this verse memorized for those moments when you are challenged to defend the Catholic position on the Eucharist.
The entire sixth chapter of John is devoted to the Eucharist. The verses in the first part of the chapter, where Jesus feeds the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, and where He walks on water, are well-known. Equally important are the later verses that speak directly about the Eucharist: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.”
These statements caused a controversy among the Jews during the time of Jesus. They still cause disagreement among many Christians today.
The voices raised against Jesus asked, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” They were appalled at the very idea of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood.
It is important to note that Jesus did not answer the question of how. Instead, four times within today’s short Gospel, Jesus reiterates that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood.
That is what we do at Mass. Come to Mass. Do not hide from God. At Mass, God does not hide from us but comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine, which is truly the glorified flesh and blood of our Savior.
One day, a little girl asked her father, “Daddy, what does God look like?” The father thought for a moment about how to explain something so profound to a five-year-old.
Then he gave the answer that fathers are famous for, “Honey, go ask your mother.”
It is not easy to explain to a five-year-old, or to anyone else, what God looks like. But today we are told that God looks like the “living bread that has come down from heaven.”
The key is that we consume His glorified body and His glorified blood. While it appears as mere bread and wine, we believe in faith that it is truly the Body and Blood of the glorified Christ.
The mystery of the Eucharist is no more difficult to believe than the Incarnation, the Resurrection or the Trinity. All these mysteries are expressions of God’s love, mysteries we will never totally or fully understand. But we have been gifted with the faith to believe.
We believe, even though we do not fully understand.
© Copyright 2026 All Rights Reserved