I am the living bread which came down
from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall
live forever: and the bread that I will give is my
flesh, for the life of the world.
- The words of Christ, John 6:51-52
We have now begun the sacred Nativity Fast, in
which we are preparing to welcome God born in the
flesh for our salvation. Out of all the methods the
Church gives us to prepare ourselves for this Great
Feast, the greatest is the reception of the Body
and Blood of Christ in the Mystery of Holy Communion.
Specific
details surrounding Our Lord's birth announce the
reality that He took on our
human flesh in order to give it to us as
the food of eternal life
after glorifying it in His Passion and Resurrection.
The
name of his birthplace, Bethlehem, means in the
Hebrew, "House of
Bread," and undoubtedly, in God's Providence, it received this name
centuries before the Lord's birth, as a prophecy that the One born there
would be the
Bread of Life for those who believe in Him.
When the Divine Infant was born, His mother laid
Him in a manger, that is, a food trough for
animals. This is a theological teaching in
action, signifying
that He took on our animal nature, our flesh, in order to become our food,
to feed us with Himself and thereby raise us to the height of His divinity.
Thus, when we receive Holy Communion, we are
fulfilling God's most pleasing and perfect
will, that He should unite us to Himself
most intimately and
personally. When we commune, we take into ourselves the entirety of the
God-Man Jesus Christ,
His human soul and body united to His divinity. This should inspire us
with unspeakable awe and yet, simultaneously, with earnest desire to
receive so
great a Gift.
Being struck with awe and wonder, and holy fear,
we will desire to prepare carefully to receive
so great a Guest, by fasting, by confession,
by reconciliation
with our neighbor, by deeds of mercy, by constant awareness of our sinfulness,
and by guarding our heart and our thoughts.
Being filled with earnest desire for so great
a Gift, we will strive to prepare often in
order to receive often, that which has been
freely
offered
to us.
Some people mistakenly think that by receiving Holy Communion rarely,
they thereby acquire greater worthiness and show greater reverence,
but this
is not true. Receiving less often does not make us more worthy or more
reverent
- we sinners can never be reverent enough or worthy enough to take
into ourselves the Sinless One. Not a single
man has approached Holy Communion
possessing
worthiness commensurate with the Gift, not in 2000 years, and no one
ever shall. But by confessing often, preparing often, and receiving
often, we
are effectually
united to Him continually, and this is what saves us, unworthy as we
are and remain. His all-worthiness fills up what is lacking in us.
Let
us, then, take advantage of this Holy Season for
our true advantage, that is, for our
spiritual advantage, by doing that which
Christ commanded: "Take
ye and eat. This is my body. Drink ye all of this. For this is the blood of
the new testament…"
The Bread of Life
Consider,
brother, the benefit you enjoy from this gift of
the Eucharist, which is called
Communion, as we have previously said, in
order to show us that it
makes all the good things and the kingdom of Jesus Christ to be common with
our soul. For this reason, St. Isidore Pelousiotes says, "The reception
of the divine Mysteries is called Communion on account of the union with Christ
that it grants us, and because it causes us to become communicants of His kingdom." Wherefore,
that infinite sum and collection of blessings and glory which Jesus gathered
into Himself by His life and His death, He gives to us totally and completely
in this great Mystery, by means of which the Lord seeks to renew in each person
individually the effects and benefit that His divine passion brought to all
the world. By this Mystery, He not only shows that He does not think it a great
thing that He labored and suffered for our salvation one time, with just one
body, but shows how He again desires to suffer for us. For this reason He wishes
to multiply, sacramentally, the very same body innumerable times, so that it
may be present on each altar, and he wishes to receive in that body, sacramentally,
all of His sufferings, in order thus to multiply our own benefit, again and
again, innumerable times: "In every place incense shall be offered unto
My Name, and a pure offering" (Malachias 1:11).
… in
this Mystery He is found essentially, and He wishes
to give it to us and benefit us with His own hand,
illumining our intellect, warming our heart,
mortifying our passions, strengthening our weaknesses, preserving our health,
and restoring
our senses to their proper order.
-
from S. Nikodimos, Spiritual Exercises