Our Venerable Father Theodore Trichinas (that is, “the one who wears a hair shirt”); Holy Anastasius of Mt. Sinai (686)
Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read
Acts 8:40-9:19; John 6:48-54
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” The famous 20th century American Evangelical Protestant theologian and Presbyterian minister Francis A. Schaeffer offered an extended film documentary on the Christian faith and western thought to Americans in 1977. It was entitled “How should we then live?” In it he pondered the fate of western culture and its relationship with Christianity. We might say that Schaefer’s scriptural question is the question that, when posed, results in Our Lord’s words above. How should we then live? We should live Eucharistically.
For some this might mean that we should always be thankful. We should be thankful for Christ’s gift of salvation offered through His passion, death, and Holy and Glorious Resurrection. Yes, this is true and it is bound up in our reception of the Eucharist, but Christ in responding to our question is demanding this thanksgiving and so much more.
Our Lord is not speaking metaphorically here. No. The Church has always understood Holy Communion, the regular partaking of Christ’s precious Body and Blood, truly present, to be salvific since through it we receive Him who is the very origin of our salvation. As Catholics we must take every opportunity we have to receive the Most Holy Eucharist, ensuring that we are free from grave sin, availing ourselves of the Holy Mystery of Repentence if required. If we are not partaking of the Eucharist we have no life within us. The Eucharist is truly life since for us as Christians it is ultimately what makes our lives true. It is TRUE life. It is REAL life. It is life because He is life itself who joins His flesh and blood to our flesh and blood in this most holy mystery. Why is Christ life? Because He has conquered death by death and given us new life. That is the Christian faith! We are living new life in Him. That is what we are doing in receiving the Holy Eucharist: we are living. Are we thankful? We must be, since that is the proper disposition of the Christian. Without the Eucharist we would not see ourselves as we truly are and desire to grow in faith evermore joining ourselves to Christ. Without the Eucharist we would not see others as they truly are, as God calls us to see them, bearers of His image and likeness. And without the Eucharist we would not see Creation as it truly is as it constantly offers thanksgiving to God. Without the Eucharist we may very well be physically alive, but we lack the nourishment we require to live out our baptism -the baptism that is ever calling us to proclaim Life in this world!