Father Albertus Herwanta, O. Carm
The Need for Sustenance in Everyone
Without food and drink, nobody can survive. These fundamental components influence our vitality, well-being, and longevity. We live longer when we consume a healthier diet. We choose our food carefully because we want to live long and healthy lives. But no matter how nourishing our physical nutrition is, it cannot prevent death. It indicates a critical issue: whereas our bodies need bread, our souls' hunger for something everlasting. Our need for eternal life cannot be satiated by worldly sustenance.
The Assurance of Everlasting Life
Our need for eternal life makes us special creatures. Eating worldly nourishment will not provide us with eternal life. We do need a new kind of sustenance, a spiritual nutrition that can only come from God. We are grateful to God for providing us with this sustenance for eternal life in the form of Jesus Christ, the bread of life, who descended from heaven.
Jesus says, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven," in John 6:51–58. The person who consumes this bread will live eternally. This bread is His flesh, given for the life of the world. Jesus maintains that a person lacks life until they consume His body and drink His blood. These phrases refer to a genuine, close unity with Him rather than just being symbolic of having faith.
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven"
For those who eat His flesh and blood, Jesus promises a certain reward. They will be resurrected on the last day and have eternal life. Furthermore, He promises that they will remain in Him, and He in them—a mutual, living connection. This is far more than remembering a historical figure. It is a vital, life-giving relationship where Christ dwells in the believer as surely as food becomes part of the body.
When we leave the Mass, we carry Christ within us, called to share what we have received.
How can we possibly eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood? It is through receiving Holy Communion in the Eucharist with faith, which does not stop at the altar. To truly consume this spiritual food means to assimilate our entire lives with Christ. We are asked to emulate Christ and become "other Christs" as we have been given. It is selfless love, humility, and submission to the Father—even to death.
Jesus came to serve and offer His life to save many, not to be served. Therefore, when we take His body and blood, we commit to the same pattern of living. The Eucharist transforms the Christian from a mere taker into a giver. We share our resources, time, forgiveness, and love with others just as Christ shared His very self with us. The path to eternal life, then, becomes a daily process of receiving God's grace and then pouring it out for our neighbours.
The Eucharist as Our Main Sustenance
This Eucharist sustains us for our journey, heals our brokenness, and unites us with God and His Church. When we leave the Mass, we carry Christ within us, called to share what we have received. In the Eucharist, heaven meets earth, and Jesus Christ becomes our main sustenance. (*)