Once former president of the united states George Bush said, “I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. Now I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.
We all like some foods and avoid others. We become what we eat. Today every food industry tries its best to sell healthy food to people. And people do know their physical, mental and emotional health depend on what they eat. Even we do not hesitate to travel from place to place to find healthy and good food. Our approach towards life and living; happiness and joy; buying food and eating them are being changed. We are so aware of who we are and how we want to live.
Our Lord Jesus Christ in order to keep His disciples and followers spiritually and socially awakened and enlightened asked them to eat His body and drink His blood. When we eat His body, we become like Him. We begin to reflect His love and forgiveness in our every day living. Once before first communion, I explained to children the importance of receiving the body of Christ on Sundays. I showed them how to keep their left palm on their right and when the priest says, “The body of Christ” they had to say, not thanks or O. K but Amen, which means I believe. And then I asked them to come and receive the communion. I gave them non-consecrated bread. Then I asked them how it tasted. And every one of them said, “It tasted like cardboard”. Then I called their parents and seriously asked them not to feed their children with cardboard.
I heard a story that during Second World War time, thousand of children were orphaned and left to starve. Many were rescued and placed in special camps. But they had a big challenge of sleeping in nighttime because of the fear of waking up in the morning to find out that they were homeless. Then someone thought of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime, and they found children could sleep peacefully. During the dark hours the bread was a reminder that they had eaten and would eat again tomorrow. For those children, bread was a symbol of life and survival. The bread gave them hope and meaning.
Jesus the Messiah before His suffering at the last supper took bread and prayed to God and blessed it and broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, ‘eat it, this is my body. Do this in memory of me’. But after Christ was crucified and died and even when He came back to life, the disciples did not break any bread in His name. They completely forgot it and moved on with their lives. Since they did not keep His loving commandment of breaking bread in His name, they could not see His presence. Like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, the disciples were confused and sad. They were almost giving up their hope but Jesus appeared to the disciples and took the bread, blessed and break and gave it to them. In the breaking of the bread, they again recognized Christ the Lord. They began to say to each other, were not our hearts burning within us, were not our minds filled with life and happiness.
Yes, dear friends every time we come to church and break the bread we too like the apostles; we too like the disciples and followers of Christ will begin to experience His presence among us.
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