Food for Eternal Life
First, let us consider two of the most common errors that can destroy our faith in eternal life. Some Christians today have a little bit of faith in eternal life and a little bit of disbelief. It is difficult for them to literally believe in eternal life. Rather, they tend to accept some vague possibility that a man will somehow survive his death.
The second mistake that shows our disbelief; namely, it sometimes seems to us that eternal life is due to anyone who lives honestly - more or less the same as a master's degree is due to anyone who honestly completes his studies and finishes it with a diploma dissertation
Yet eternal life is an absolute gift. It's just that God loves us unimaginably more than it would result from the fact that He made us human. The promise of eternal life is by no means contained in the fact that we are human. It is contained in the fact of the love God has shown us in the cross of Jesus Christ. Eternal life is about more than making those who attain it unimaginably happy. Eternal life is the boundless fulfillment of the love that flows from the cross of Christ, the love that the Eternal Father shows us through his crucified and risen Son, our Lord.
In order to understand anything about the Eucharist, one must literally and truthfully believe in eternal life, as the Lord Jesus promised us. After all, the Eucharist was given to us as food for eternal life. "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" (cf. John 6:51).
The Lord Jesus likens the sacrament of His Body and Blood to the gift of manna that God's people received on their way to the Promised Land. Note that the manna was no longer ordinary bread. It was a special sign of God's care for his people. It was simply God Himself who took charge of bringing Jacob's sons to the Promised Land. Manna was one of the real proofs that God is keeping His promise. Hence, manna, although it satisfied the physical hunger, also reminded us that man does not live by bread alone, that we must open ourselves to God's gifts by faith.
Christ the Lord leads us to another promised land. Our promised land towards which we are striving is eternal immersion in God's love. One does not go to this land by walking for miles, but by throwing off sin, by joyfully submitting to God's will, by opening oneself more and more to God's love. Without God's special help, it is impossible to enter this path and even harder to stay on this path.
Through baptism we enter the road to eternal life, because baptism plants in us the first seed of our participation in God's nature. In order to follow this path, we must strengthen ourselves with the Body and Blood of the Son of God himself. The Lord Jesus tells us clearly that the use of this Divine Food is of the utmost importance: “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" (Joh 6:53).
Until Tomorrow
fr. george