"In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus: the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of the Word of God; their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge of God's faithfulness to his promises. The "cup of blessing" at the end of the Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing of the bread and the cup" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nº 1334).

I want to share with you the grace that the Lord gives to me in each Eucharist. It means to me very deep providence and joy that I can go to Mass and take Communion frequently during the week. In the sacrament of Communion I receive the only treasure that I yearn for, the treasure of my soul, the greatest treasure in the simplicity of a piece of bread.

Jesus wanted to give us his love until the end, until the gift of his life, and in his eucharistic presence he mysteriously remains among us as one who loved us and surrendered himself for us (cf. Gal 2:20). Bread and wine are the signs that express and communicate this love. "Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world'. His disciples said to him: 'Lord, give us this bread always'" (cf. John 6:32-34.53).

If I really want to follow the Lord, if I choose to be his disciple, I need to feed myself on his Life. How many times throughout the day I seek strength, consolation, compensation and good ideas! But I look for them wrongly, because I seek outside, I go to wrong "lords", I don't seek the Truth. Jesus invites me to ask myself and discern: What do I 'invest' or 'spend' my time in? How do I organize the different tasks and activities? What place do additions occupy? Where is the important thing each day? To what extent am I set on wasting energy on perishable bread, little caring about the Bread for eternal life?

The Lord overwhelms himself, he offers himself for me without my being worthy, and in Him I receive all consolation and strength. That is why I can do no other thing but repeat humbly and faithfully the centurion's words: "Lord, I'm not worthy that you enter my house, but a word of yours will be enough to heal me" (cf. Mt 8:8).

What great and wonderful grace that of being invited to this celebration of of the love of Jesus! What joy will be for the Lord's heart to receive our small answer, our poor yes! What joy not to be like those discourteous guests who hid themselves in so many excuses! (cf. John 14:15).

I discover that going to the Lord's banquet:

• changes my look, helping me to live everyday life in fullness and deep joy.
• unites me intimately to Jesus: "He who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood, abides in me and I in him" (Jn 6:56).
• takes me to intercede together with Mary who is united to his Son's offering, as she was by the Cross of Jesus.
• keeps me apart from sin, because his Body is given and his Blood is shed for the conversion of my life.
• fortifies me in charity, in a way of love and surrendering.
• makes me be in unity and communion with my brothers and all the Church: "They devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers" (cf. Acts 2:42-46). "Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (1 Cor 10:17).
• makes me witness of his presence in me.
• gives me an anticipation of the transfiguration of our body by Christ and makes me wish eternal Life: "Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection" (St. Ireneo of Lyon) (Catechism Nº 1000).
• reanimates my hope of "new heavens" and a "new Earth" in which justice dwells (cf. 2 Pt 3:13). By the eucharistic celebration we are already being united to the liturgy of Heaven and anticipate the eternal life when God will be everything to every one (cf. 1 Cor 15:28) and we shall meet in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (cf. Rev 19:9).
• causes true thanksgiving, praise and adoration to the Father to come out of my heart, as memorial of Christ's sacrifice, as presence of Christ through the power of his Word and his Spirit. "Do this in my memory" (cf. 1 Cor 11:24-25).

For all this Jesus, I want to ask you that on receiving your Body and your Blood you may feed my fidelity so that I can be a tabernacle that remains alive until the next Eucharist, so that I can love and serve you, also, in the tabernacle of my brothers. May your presence in me teach me how to remain in intimate and deep alliance with your Word. I want to ask you to surrender me entirely to your love, to your will and your lordship so that my nothing only becomes meaningful in your Everything, because in you I am, I move and I exist.

Verónica di C.
Com. Asoc. Ecuador
Cristo Vive Aleluia!
Nº 122, p. 30 (2000)