28 April 2023
Friday of the Third Week of Easter
The bread of life discourse in chapter six of John’s Gospel is arguably one of the most pivotal moments in the entirety of Scripture and reveals the heart of the Christian mystery in the course of a few short lines. The substance of our faith is not just belief in an idea or assent to some hypothetical proposition about some way that God *might* exist. Christianity is not simply fidelity to a set of principles or ideologies. It’s a relationship to a person, to the person, the second Person of the Holy Trinity who took on flesh and blood to dwell with us, to teach us, to love us, to live with us, to correct us, to bring us back to Himself, and to offer his very Body and Blood as a sacrifice so that we could have eternal life with Him.
The mystery, beauty, and value of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are not derived from abstract concepts. It’s visceral. At every Mass, Christ literally gives his Body and Blood to feed and sustain us. He dwells in the tabernacle not as some inanimate object but as the Incarnate Lord who sacrificed all for the sake of loving relationship with each of us individually. He waits for us there at every moment of day with a burning desire for our attention and affections. An authentic life of faith is not accomplished by agreement to propositions but through surrendering our hearts in relationship to the One who made us from nothing, who provides for our every need, and who knows us and loves us and sustains us in every moment of our lives.