Food Matters

Early in my adult life my body started breaking and I learned that food really matters when it comes to nourishing the body back to health and well-being. 

Eating food that wasn’t full of abundant life like nutrients and vitamins was creating an experience of death and illness inside of me vs. a fuller life that God wanted me to have. So I changed my diet, and experienced a more abundant life as a result. I’ve reversed vitamin deficiencies, overcome pain and fatigue, and live better as a result. Mostly just from changes in what I eat daily.

Today we celebrate the Body and Blood of Jesus, and our relationship to everyday food can help us understand the importance of eating and drinking the food of eternal life. 

Just like what we eat and drink each day, what we ingest or don’t ingest spiritually matters. Eating the food of eternal life (Eucharist) helps us stay with Jesus. Not eating the food of eternal life makes us stray from Jesus. Just look at Mass-goers and non-Mass goers and you’ll see that truth. It’s just as Jesus says in the Gospel today. Those who eat of me, remain with me. We remain spiritually well and healthy when we eat the Eucharist regularly. 

I think we need to recognize that spiritual food matters. In a culture where we seem to think that not going to Mass, as long as God is in our lives, is fine, we miss the point that we are lacking something major when we don’t go to Mass. We are lacking Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our lives, and the food that matters. It's, above all, our spiritual nourishment which helps us stay on the path towards eternal life.

I’ve experienced dry times in my faith where I didn’t want to drag myself to Mass on Sunday, but still the hunger and need for the Eucharist stuck with me. I knew I needed to keep eating the body of Christ to remain with Christ. I knew that spiritual food matters. We can't lose sight of that. 

So ask yourself and maybe ask another person you know who has not been going to mass as regularly: Are you eating and drinking of the body and blood that nourishes God’s life working inside of you?