Most Holy Eucharist; The Holy Apostle Jude, Brother of the Lord. Feast of our Lord and Polyeleos Feast.
1 Corinthians 11:23-32; Jude 1:1-10; John 6:48-54; John 14:21-24.
Read John 6:48-54
In a time of danger, a young boy named Tarcisius held something so sacred to his chest that he was willing to die rather than let go of it. He wasn’t carrying gold or secrets—he was carrying the Eucharist. Why? Because he believed that what he held was not bread, but the Living God. He believed, as Jesus says in John 6, “Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
His love for Christ was so real, so total, that he gave his life for the One who gave His life for us. That is what the Eucharist means: Life poured out in love. Love that becomes our life.
You may not be a teenager in Ancient Rome as St. Tarcisius was but you are a saint in the making in this pagan age today. And that same love for the Eucharist that he and other saints had after reading this passage in John 6 is renewed in those who encounter it every generation in hearing and in tasting. Just like a man must be born before he can begin to lead his physical life, so he must be born to lead a Divine Life. That birth occurs in the Mystery of Baptism. To survive, he must be nourished by Divine Life and that happens in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
Truly, history’s most extraordinary love story is contained in a tiny piece of ordinary tasting bread.