Transformed Through the Eucharist

Today I was sitting at mass right before the Eucharistic Prayer and the Consecration, when a beautiful realization came upon me. You see, we (or at least, I) often fall into the trap of regularity in which those activities we perform on a weekly or especially daily basis (i.e. receiving communion) lose their uniqueness or significance in our eyes.

Fortunately, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes today to again reveal His majesty through the beauty of communion.

Immediately before mass this morning, I was walking with a boatload of anxiety and uncertainty, but I knew I had to try to somehow relieve that angst during mass. I prayed during Presentation: "Lord, I offer up my anxieties, throwing them down at Your feet and upon Your altar so that I may trust in You completely." It was in that very moment that I realized how Transubstantiation (the process by which the bread and wine are consecrated to become the Body and Blood of Jesus) is a replica of how God changes us, mere mortals filled with earthly faults and tainted by sin. This process occurs almost in the same way that bread and wine (earthly elements) are transformed into something divine (Jesus Christ).

I'm not trying to say that God transforms us into divine beings; we are, after all, very much human in every sense of the term. But God allows us to step into a fresh perspective every day when we encounter the Eucharist, for in this beautiful sacrament, we become one with Him and with the Church.

By the end of mass, I was much more capable of approaching my anxieties with calm and with trust in God. Truly, Jesus gives us a yoke unlike any other....a wonderful gift of love!