“Do not work for food
that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life, which
the Son of Man will give you.” (Jn.6:27)
The
feast of the Body of Christ runs a risk:
that Jesus offered to us today as Bread, might be admired,
contemplated, adored along the streets and squares, but then He
remains closed in the monstrance and tabernacle.
But Jesus says:
“take and eat”! So how should we live
concretely the gift of the Eucharist?
We need to take and
eat. That is transform ourselves into
Jesus, to be Him. To live not for ourselves, but that Jesus might be,
live and work among Christians.
Christians then,
among themselves, if they want to be
totally committed, must conduct themselves as members of one body.
But this is not enough. During the day this communion must become
concrete in social relations in a spiritual communion in actions and
material goods.
This applies
for Christians. But for those who do not communicate in the sacrament
of the Body of Christ? We ourselves must be communion for them with
our body: by loving we give Jesus.
Indeed, allowing
ourselves to be "eaten" by others, we make ourselves
Eucharist for them. Letting ourselves to be eaten means to be people
who do not impose themselves, but who make themselves one with
everyone, suffering with those who suffer, rejoicing with those who
rejoice, participating in the life, problems, struggles, and joys of
others.
In a continual
giving of love they make of themselves a bridge between Jesus and
humanity so that the invitation of Jesus will reach the others: “Take
and eat, this is My Body!”.
- - - - - - -
An Experience of Life:
At work something
that always saddened me a lot was to see that, when a reprimand was
to be given, it was done before everyone; in fact it happened that a
coworker was reprimanded in the department.
I always asked Jesus
that there might be a good time to do
something about this. Sometime ago there was a trade union meeting
and at the end of a talk of a union organizer he asked if there were
any questions or problems to deal with. It was the opportune moment
to intervene. And so I raised my hand and I explained my point of
view, saying that I had witnessed reproaches made to colleagues in
public and with offensive words and I saw it was not right: if a
colleague had worked badly or had made a mistake, it was the duty of
the manager to let him know, but it should have taken place between
them.
My words caused a
general murmur of approval. A few days after our union rep told me
that my speech was very important; she knew
that they had spoken at the summit and we both noted that afterwards
we did not witness a similar scene. She once said: "I willing
talk with you because you are a humane and fair person. I was once
like you too; I tried to help everyone, then I saw that when I myself
needed help no one did anything, so now I just mind my own business.
I listened to
her trying to "make myself one" and I sensed that there was
a lot of suffering under her words. I told her that I understood
because I had to face in life many trials, but one thing I was
certain: to turn ones back on people was not the right solution to be
well.
(Daniela, VR)
