Christ-Focus in the Eucharist

Self-destructive patterns of failure can distort our spiritual vision in countless ways by subtly depersonalizing our relationship with Jesus. How can this out-of-focus Christianity distance us from Christ? There are many possibilities.

Consider, for instance, how it has caused many to regard the Eucharist as a mere symbol, rather than the living person of Jesus with whom we are fused in Communion. Ponder carefully and prayerfully Jesus’ emphatic teaching at Capernaum:

I tell you most solemnly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him…The one who feeds on me will live because of me.   John 6:53-57.

How could Jesus have emphasized any more vehemently the need to focus on his real personhood and presence in this sacrament? So urgently does Jesus consider this existential experience of his very real “com-union” (we abiding in him and he in us) that he goes so far as to link it with both our longed-for rapture and eternal life (see John 6:54).

This excerpt is from the book The Art of Loving God by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications, 1995. This and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.