Algebra class was the origin of real high school stress for me. At the time I wouldn’t have called it that. It had another identifying label not suitable for presentation here. All I remember was that a whole bunch of numbers and letters on the left somehow equaled the same pile on the right. The name of the item was “equation.”
Our Lord never had to study algebra as far as the Bible is concerned. Nor should we be. Yet there are examples aplenty of His non-mathematical “equations.” He called Himself “the Good Shepherd” on one occasion. “The Son of Man” several times. So too for our purpose today “The Bread of Life.”
John chapter six expands on that last title by letting us hear Jesus say that the unleavened bread and the cup of wine in front of Him on the table at the Last Supper through His saying so became equated (there’s that word again) with His very flesh and blood. The better expression is that those two elements were transformed into His Body and Blood.
Our physical senses don’t detect any change. The bread looks, acts and tastes like bread on the outside, but it is no longer bread, but His Body. “Corpus Christi.” Same for the wine as our senses yield. But at the words of consecration, pronounced in our time by the ordained priest, as God’s representative, turn it into His Blood.
In another Gospel section, Jesus declares that the eating and drinking of His Body and Blood is our guarantee of living forever. That is, unless we forfeit the guarantee by unrepentant sin. That’s when we really can appreciate Sacrament of Penance as another gift from our loving God.
One of the most intriguing new advocates for loving the Holy Eucharist is a young man named Carlo Acutis. Carlo was born in England and was raised in Italy. He died when he was only 15 from leukemia. He was up until then a normal happy boy, liked by his many friends; good at playing soccer but especially skilled with a computer. From an early age he was attracted by the Eucharistic Lord and went to daily Mass even converting his own mom to the faith.
He designed a web page on which he posted information on all the Eucharistic miracles that he could. A traveling exposition of these has traveled the world. He matched his devotion with service to the poor. After he died his body was unearthed intact for what was to be burial in Assisi. So now you can view the body enclosed in glass, with Carlo dressed in a sports jacket and sneakers. The first millennial soon to be canonized. What an inspiration! A young disciple telling us that holiness is so possible in our ordinary lives. Google his name for more details.
In the meantime, remember that “the world will not be convinced of your faith by the sourness of your face.”
God love you and give you his peace.