Day 32
A picture of me in my mom’s bowl that she used for kneading the bread.
When I was little, I was an extreme bread lover. My Mom would bake bread and the story goes that she started to notice holes in the bread. She didn’t understand it. So one day she saw me grabbing the bread and eating a little piece. To me, there was nothing better than fresh, hot homemade bread.
In the ancient world bread was a staple of life; it meant survival. Everyone ate bread and it was normal. So Our Lord in the Mass changes the substance of the bread and it becomes His Body. “He hides himself under the appearance of a small piece of bread – man’s ordinary nourishment – so that when received he might enter the heart of man and there take his delight” (Preparation for Total Consecration, 109). Bread, ordinary Bread, is what is used, except in our case we use unleavened bread because it was what the Israelites used for the Passover celebration. Jesus comes and remains with us.
Our Lord is Present in the Eucharist, whether He is exposed in the Monstrance or He is reposed in the Tabernacle, Jesus is Present. We are able to adore our Lord’s Body visibly in the Monstrance or we can adore Him in the Tabernacle. “He does not conceal himself under a sparkling diamond or some precious stone, because he does not want to abide with man in an ostentatious manner” (Preparation for Total Consecration, 109). Jesus comes to and dwells in us through His Body which looks like bread, tastes like it, and feels like it, but it has by the Words of Institution been Transubstantiated into His Body.
We are so blessed to receive Him this way. He remains with us, and is available in the Tabernacle to be brought to the sick. It is a gift.