I’m Starving!
Last weekend we celebrated Easter Vigil and it was as usual my favorite Mass of the year. This has always been a special Mass for me and my family as both my mom and my grandma converted to Catholicism and joined the Church on Easter Vigil. We had 13 people come to full communion with the Church, 8 of which were unbaptized or had never received their sacraments in the Catholic Church. I in particular was blessed to walk with all of them at one point or another on their journey and was there to altar serve at the Mass where they received their gifts. Deacon Mike and I worked closely with the 3 high school students who received their sacraments and I want to highlight something that all three of them talked about. When the pastor did his interview with them his first question was the same: “Why do you want this? What about the Faith is drawing you to Christ at this time?” All three girls said the same thing in one form or another, “I want the Eucharist, I want Jesus” It blew me away that these students were that intense about their desire to receive Jesus and were so confident in their answers.
Then on Holy Thursday Deacon Mike gave a homily that I’d heard before but this time it just hit different. Several years ago he was running RCIA and this woman was just waiting on an annulment and it was taking forever, everything that could go wrong was going wrong. Every Sunday she would come up to receive a blessing during Communion. One Sunday she came up to him and said “Deacon…I’m STARVING” When was the last time you thought that much about being able to receive Jesus? We get to go to Mass every Sunday and it’s just become part of the routine. I know I’m guilty of just going into autopilot during Mass and not even thinking about what’s happening. Even when I was a kid it was just a new chapter in my journey of being Catholic, but I never understood what was happening. Those students, those people going through OCIA, they want what we have. Jesus draws us to him because we desire the ultimate good of the world: Him. Do we honor and recognize that every time we go to Mass, or is it just business as usual? A miracle is being performed at every single Mass, Jesus Christ is coming down to Earth. Through transubstantiation is changing the substance of the bread and wine to become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ under the humble accidents of the gifts we offer. God Himself is literally coming down to Earth and allowing us to receive Him. Take a minute to think about that…
The other theme of Deacon’s homily was “You are what you eat” When we eat good food that nourishes our body properly, we can build muscle, lose weight and overall be healthier. A good diet allows us to fuel our exercises and live a healthy life. The Eucharist is the ultimate food, the source of our strength in our Faith that fuels our soul. When we recognize what It is and allow It to transform us, it makes us more like Christ! It’s so important for us to receive Communion every week, it’s part of our duty as Christians to come to Mass every week so we can get our weekly fuel. During the Vigil I was up on the altar watching the elect, now baptized and confirmed, look at the priest during the consecration and I could see the intent look upon their faces, watching every move he made. They were hanging on every word, despite the fact that many of them had been coming to Mass for many years. This time it was different. This time they were going to be able to partake of the greatest feast in all the world. Seeing the biggest smiles on their faces when they came up to receive Jesus for the first time…that will never go away for me. Even today a week later during school Mass, I saw the girls go up with that same smile and it stirred up that feeling in me.
I could talk for pages and pages about the Theology of the Eucharist, talk about my own experiences, or rattle off more stories of Eucharistic Miracles, but that would get tedious. Instead I simply want to ask a question and issue a challenge. Are you starving for Christ, like really starving for Him? Think about that, and the next time Sunday rolls around, pay close attention to the priest during the liturgy of the Eucharist, hang on every word, and when you go up to receive, remember that the King of the Universe is there in that ciborium and He wants you to transformed by Him. When the priest says “The Body of Christ” and you when say “Amen” mean that fully. Don’t just go through the motions, don’t autopilot the Mass. When Christ said “I Thirst” he meant for you and me. Are we hungry for Him?
Yours in Christ,
Andrew Kurt
