We need to receive the Eucharist with a pure heart!

Feb. 26 is Ash Wednesday

The Holy Scriptures contain many invitations, but one stands out in a very special way. On the first Holy Thursday, during the Last Supper, born from a heart bursting with self-giving love the Lord invites us to “take and eat.”

According to Matthew 26, 26, the Lord had taken bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying the words of invitation, “take and eat.” Jesus clearly explained what this unique food he was inviting them to eat was. He clearly stated that this bread “is my body.”

This loving invitation to “take and eat” is tied to the infinite wisdom of God who knows just how important this celestial and angelic nutrition is for each one of us. Jesus tried to communicate just how much we need to “take and eat” when in the Gospel of John 6:53, he emphatically told us all, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” This is clearly a life and death issue!

Almost 2,000 years later, this holy invitation to “take and eat” this eternal life assuring nutrition of the Eucharist, the bread of life, is still valid and is deserving of our well-prepared response.

As for any meal, we must be careful how, and not only what, we eat. Growing up, my mom would always ask us, “Did you wash your hands yet?” Then, the evening race between my brother and me began. We would run to wash our hands and come back to the table to get that first opportunity at eating mom’s delicious dinner. This was a good habit back then and now too.

Our food was placed on clean plates and we had clean silverware and napkins to go with clean hands. Lack of cleanliness at any meal, or in the doctor’s office, the operating room or at a restaurant, could easily turn an invigorating and life-giving moment into one of illness and death.

Sadly, many have died because of food that was not prepared well or because of a lack of cleanliness. Dirty hands, kitchens, pots, pans dishes or silverware can turn potentially good nutrition into the beginning of major food poisoning and stomach ills.

So too our souls. We need to receive the Eucharist with a pure heart! We need to prepare to celebrate and receive the bread of life with souls absent of death and filled with life that wishes to intensify and grow through the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ.

While we can, and should, feed those who are ill and weak because of the many venial sins, that we carry with us every day, with the Eucharist, we should never feed the Eucharist to walking cadavers who desire to embrace their mortal sins more than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of reconciliation before coming to the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. We need pure hearts for the purest of angelic bread, Jesus Christ himself. It is even beneficial for our venial sins or even our slightest imperfections.

Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians 11:27-29 says, “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

So, as we approach this season of Lent, and through these 40 days prepare to celebrate the triumph of the Lord at Easter, I invite all my readers to visit the tabernacle and ask Jesus’ help. Just say, “Thank you Jesus for the Eucharist. Help me Jesus to receive you always with a pure heart. Guide me to meet you and your loving mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation. Amen.”

This spiritual habit is good for Lent 2020 and any time of the year.