I am nowhere near the shadow of the great Elijah but I definitely can identify with him because I want to die too. Each morning when I wake up, my neck is stiff but not a whiff of hot “vadai” awaiting me. But back to Elijah, the scones are once again a pre-figurement or a type for the Eucharist that God wants give us.
We have strayed far into the territory of John 6 and last week, the crowd that hungered for physical nourishment asked for a sign to prove Jesus’ divine credentials. In today’s Gospel, Jesus pointed to Himself as the sign that they have been searching for. He is the Bread of life because He has been sent by God the Father.
The crowd was clearly disoriented because they had Jesus sized up. For them, He was an inconsequential son of Joseph the carpenter. Their set idea of who Jesus is blinded them to the possibility of faith in the One sent by God the Father. Indeed, faith is never an easy path because life throws challenges at us, most especially when we search for God. One of the things that we must appreciate is that even though we give up and lose faith, He does not abandon us. In fact, He is constantly there for us through the Eucharist that gives us strength. This is why for us the Mass is important. If we reduce attendance to simply an obligation to fulfil then we would have failed to appreciate the true meaning of the Eucharist.
As the Bread of life, Jesus Himself established the necessity of the Eucharist for eternal life. In my limited pastoral experience, I want to share what I think for some of us is a failure to grasp the full meaning of the Eucharist as the Bread of life. The matter concerns the baptism of children in a marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic.
In this age of indifference, we tend to relegate religion as somewhat benign in the sense that we accept the assertion that all religions are the same. After all, every religion will teach its adherents to be good. In some cases, a Catholic, out of respect for the non-Catholic spouse will want to defer the baptism of the children. Furthermore, for modernity, religion is a matter of personal choice and should never be forced unto someone. The common sentiment expressed is to allow a child the freedom to choose since there is no difference in the goal which is to be good.
Jesus was rather absolute in His statement. The entrance into heaven requires eating His Body and drinking His Blood. When a Catholic parent refuses to baptise or freely chose not to baptise the child to initiate him or her into the faith, that parent does not know Whom he or she is receiving. I want to be clear that those who marry a Catholic wife or a Catholic husband, and who are not Catholic themselves, there is no compulsion to convert. However, your Catholic spouse has a duty to baptise the children, for if not, it introduces a performative contradiction into what they believe and how they behave with respect to their belief.
The Lord has been feeding the Church with His Body and Blood since the Last Supper. He does it through the long line of apostolic succession in which the priesthood is the principal instrument for this purpose. For Him to categorically state that eternal life is premised on consuming His Flesh and imbibing His Blood, then it must be up to Him to provide the means for the confection of His Body and Blood. When a Catholic parent receives Holy Communion, presumably, he or she wants eternal life. And if eternal life is a premium, it would be a dereliction of duty for a parent not to feed the same premium food to the child.
Furthermore, parents routinely choose for their children. To assert that allowing a child to choose his or her religion when they are old enough is contrary to the logic of parenting. Parents choose schools, hospitals, food, drink and even friends. Why not the religion? But most damaging of all is the fact that the Catholic parent believes that the Eucharist grants eternal life but withholds it from the child or children. Either the Catholic parent is selfish, which is not the case or he or she does not know Whom he or she is receiving.
The basic teaching of Jesus is simple. He is the Bread of life. He is the food that the Father gives in order for us to gain eternal life. Imagine the world that is not fully sacramentalised. How much of Who Christ is and wants to share with the world is not achieved at all. Converting the world to Christianity and Catholicism is not easy. But perhaps the start is not out there. It is in here. Where is our own reverence towards the Bread of life? Maybe, it is because we treat it so casually that others do not know how to value it.
Christ the Bread of life might be better appreciated by others if we ourselves have learnt how to appreciate this immense treasure handed to us. Before we want others to access the grace of the Eucharist, we should be the first to value it.
Finally, the Eucharist is like marriage. It is interpersonal which means like every relationship, it can deteriorate and languish in jadedness. When we have to attend Mass every Sunday, it can be reduced to a routine that we forget that the reason for going there is to strengthen our relationship. The rapport with the Lord is fortified by a preparation that is reverential, a repentance that is sincere and a gratitude that is profound. A closer union with Jesus in the Eucharist renders our baptism more fruitful and unites us more deeply into the mystery of the Church. Finally, the Eucharist is the only spiritual food proper for the pilgrimage to eternity.
