Gospel reading for August 18, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Are we present to the Real Presence?

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 34). We taste, eat, and enjoy the goodness of the Lord when we eat the Body of Christ and drink the Blood of Christ at Sunday Mass. But we must eat and drink with faith. Bruno Barnhart writes about Jesus in the Gospel of John: “I am your food. I have come to be consumed and assimilated: first into your hearts and minds through listening and faith; then into your very bodies which I will transform into my own…a…revolution…the ‘I AM” …becomes the new personal center and the life of those who come to him…Jesus is the divine light and life made visible, audible, touchable and finally ingestible. To ‘see’ him, to listen to his words and believe in him, and thus to feed upon him, is to begin to surrender the boundaries of one’s own consciousness and one’s own being.”

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” To eat, drink, and abide is our response to the gift of divine knowledge in the bread and wine. This is how we receive the communication of divine oneness in the Eucharist.

We believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The question for us, then, is: are we really present to the Real Presence? We must be attentive to the mystery of God dwelling within us and among us.  It’s all about being attentive to the God who loves us gratuitously. Prayer outside of Mass is critical for celebrating the Mass. One of the major ways we are present to God in the Eucharistic celebration is through ritual gesture—which means by the different bodily actions we take: sitting, kneeling, standing, shaking hands, etc. Another mode of our intentional presence is response: praying the response parts of the Eucharist as well as singing at appropriate times.

How attentive are you during the Eucharist?  When does your attention wander (i.e., at what part of the Mass?)  When is it hardest to be attentive? We need to practice patience, being present in the moment and letting go of anxiety about what’s going to happen.  In other words, we need to let go of an obsession with clock time and our over-booked schedules. We must give our full attention to God. The mystics call this detachment.

Meister Eckhart reflects, “if you trod on a stone while in this state of mind, it would be a more godly act than if you were to receive the body of our Lord while being concerned only for yourself and having a less detached attitude of mind.” We detach by remaining in God’s presence. We detach, according to Eckhart, by “keeping God alone in mind.” We let go of ourselves, of focusing on ourselves, to rest in God in faith.

This is what Jesus means by “remaining” in him. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, often calls us to remain in him. Barnhart says, “Abide in me: root yourselves in this central place, and remain rooted here, and my life will flow through you and bear fruit in the world.” Remain in God and Jesus by being present in faith. Then, we truly eat and drink the Body and Blood.

“Jesus said to the crowds: ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.’” In the Eucharist, we eat heaven! We ingest the transcendent reality of God, the divine nothingness in the human flesh of Jesus, and under the appearance of bread and wine. By consuming the bread and wine we allow the divine nothing to consume us! We allow God to become, more and more, the center and very reality of our lives. When we eat and drink in faith, we abide in the divine nothing and in Jesus. We become enlightened. And, enlightenment means realizing God within oneself, not a “seeing of a distinct object by a conscious subject, not a dualistic knowing but an experience of the nondual light which is the Logos within one. This light is the unitive reality and understanding” (Barnhart). Through the Eucharist – Jesus who is “the bread that came down from heaven” – we become one with the I AM of God and, through God, one with the whole body of creation.