Real Presence of Christ is born out of God’s generosity

Eucharist energizes our own generosity 

One of Jesus’ miracles, a miracle that later will connect his loving generosity with his real presence in the Eucharist, was so memorable that it appears in each one of the Gospels. Here is that miracle as shared by John the Evangelist in the richly eucharistic Ch. 6 of his Gospel:

“Philip answered him, ‘200 days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little bit. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?’” 

Jesus said, “’Have the people recline.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about 5,000 in number. Then, Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.’ So, they collected them and filled 12 wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat’” (John 6, 7-13, NABRE).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a few words on this miracle of love and generosity in the beginning of Paragraph 1335:

“The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist.”

Eucharist and generosity, or superabundance, go hand-in-hand because Jesus Christ is generosity without limits. We cannot put a limit on his life-giving love, mercy or generosity in any way.

The greatest example of God’s loving generosity is that he gave us his only begotten son who died on the cross so we may have eternal life. This eternal life is continuously and generously being given to us in the Eucharist as the life-giving and love-filled food of the Lord’s body and blood, soul and divinity.

A generous and loving God fills us with the superabundant life of his son in the Eucharist so we may go into the world as dedicated disciples, reflections of the Christ we just ate at the table of the Lord. This is the best nutrition any baptized man or woman can receive.

God’s love, life and generosity is so contagious that our own generosity grows when we eat his body and drink his blood at every Mass. We become what we eat and we see all those around us as part of us since we are all one body, the Church. We become more grace filled with every Holy Communion, and, when we cooperate with the graces received, we become more loving, gracious and generous. We become more Christian in the fullest sense of the word.

After Mass, I invite you to visit our Lord in the tabernacle. Speak with Jesus. Praise him, and thank him for his loving and generous presence. Place your needs, and the needs of others, before him. Open your heart to what the Lord says and asks of you. Ask him for opportunities to be generous with others and, when those opportunities arise, give generously. Give and do this in memory of him. Amen.