BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in them.” And he tells us that if we do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, we will have no life in us. The Eucharist is our nourishment, our true food, and without it we will face death by spiritual starvation. There are nearly 70 million nominal Catholics in the United States, the largest denomination in the country. But de facto, the fastest growing group are non practicing Catholics. They don’t attend Mass and don’t receive the sacraments. Looking around at some of the empty churches, we can see the mute evidence of these missing family members. They are like deaths in our spiritual family. Outreach and reconciliation fall to those of us who do celebrate Communion, who believe that this is a matter of life and death.

Deacon Dick Folger