By Cecilia Dietzler
Evangelization Specialist for the Archdiocese of Denver
The first time I taught someone about the Eucharist, I was teaching a third-grade Sunday school class. Incredibly intimidated by this task after taking graduate theology courses, I explained this mystery in the simplest way I could to a room of nine-year-olds. On the whiteboard, I drew a slice of normal sandwich bread and asked everyone what happens in our bodies when we eat a slice of bread.
“We get energy!” one of them said. I nodded and explained that when we eat bread, all those crumbs enter our body and transform into energy, which goes to different parts, like our muscles so that we can run and our brains so that we can think.
One of the students brought up a commercial on television at the time, depicting people literally becoming what they had eaten, like a vegetable that ran races or a couch potato who sat around all day, with the slogan, “You are what you eat.”
Reflecting on this, I returned to the board and drew the Eucharist.
I told the students, “The Eucharist that we eat at Mass is also a piece of bread, and when we eat it, our body also transforms it into energy so that we can run. But the Eucharist is different. Because the Eucharist is really Jesus, we also feed our souls when we eat it! Jesus is so powerful that our souls don’t transform the bread; the bread transforms our souls! We are what we eat, and we become what we receive if we give him permission.”
I continue to reflect on these words, which must have been given to me by the Holy Spirit in the moment, to this day. Jesus Christ, by instituting the sacraments, gave us a way to feed our souls in a way that transforms us spiritually, fills us with grace and makes us holy. Such a gift shouldn’t be kept to ourselves but should radiate outwards!
Pope Benedict XVI said in a homily in 2008 that “it is clear that the Church’s holiness and missionary character are two sides of the same coin: only because she is holy, that is, filled with divine love, can the Church carry out her mission, and it is precisely in terms of this task that God chose her and sanctified her.”
Indeed, God sanctifies us not only for our sake but for the sake of the whole world. It is not enough to receive the graces given to us in the Eucharist to be holy.
Holiness comes from being receptive to God’s grace and going out into the world to do his work. To do that work, we are transformed in mind and heart. We allow ourselves to see people as Christ would see them. We are moved with pity when friends and family are suffering. We share the good news of Christ’s radical love for us whenever possible.
When I look at pictures of saints, I visualize the halo depicted around their heads as a reminder of this reality. When we receive Christ and allow him to transform us, we become living monstrances, showcasing Christ to the world through our words and actions.
St. Catherine of Alexandria converted 50 orators and philosophers with her powerful defense of the faith, which she received from the Holy Spirit.
St. Teresa of Calcutta ultimately converted many of the poor to whom she ministered through her works of charity, which she could do only because of the radical love of the poor she received from the Holy Spirit.
St. Damien of Molokai converted the lepers of Hawaii by accompanying them in their suffering and providing them an example of Christ’s radical love, giving himself as a sacrifice by drawing near to them and eventually contracting leprosy because of his ministry.
None of these saints could reach into the hearts of those around them and force conversion upon them. Rather, their love for God was so deeply rooted that it couldn’t help but blossom and lead others to him. They became what they received. The only obstacle standing between us and such radical displays of Christ’s love and power is our receptivity to this transformation.
To receive these supernatural graces offered during the Mass in a way that they will be able to transform the world, “it is necessary that the faithful come to [Mass] with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 11).
Our God is a God of free will who does not force us to live out the Gospel in our lives. To live Eucharistically is to receive the sacraments with open minds, ears and hearts, so that we might grow in understanding of how God desires us to live out our missionary character in a deep, specific way and grow in capacity to do this work.
All of us who receive the Eucharist at Mass become living tabernacles: vessels containing the body of Christ. Through our receptivity to our missionary identity, we can grow in holiness to become living monstrances like the saints – not only carrying Christ but displaying his love for all to see and experience in a way that can radically change the world.
