In a short while we will process with the Blessed Sacrament around our cloisters, a path we travel many times each day. It reminds me of the rock that St. Paul said followed the Israelites in the desert, the one struck by Moses to bring forth water for the people, and Paul says, “the rock was the Christ.” This is a foreshadowing of what happens to us in our monastic journey. For just as God had directed all the journeying of the Israelites in the desert, testing them to know their intentions, so, Jesus has accompanied us and directed our journey, feeding us with his very body and blood. He is our rock whose body was struck by the soldier’s lance and blood and water flowed out to nourish us in all the stages of our journey.
Our procession through the cloister is a remembrance of the intimate presence of Jesus in our midst. The Book of Deuteronomy exhorted the Israelites to remember all the blessings they had received starting with their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, then to the protection they received in the wilderness where their clothes did not fall from them in tatters or their feet swell up on account of the hot sands, to the most important moment when God and the people made a binding covenant at Mt. Sinai. But the people also looked forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise that they would enter a land “flowing with milk and honey.” Looking back in awe at God’s mighty deeds and looking forward in hope to the fulfillment of God’s promise – our celebration today is similar. We look back on how God has directed us since the moment of our monastic conversion, how he has led us through the afflictions in the desert of monastic life, which, figuratively speaking, include all kinds of seraph serpents, scorpions, parched and waterless ground, and finally, how he brings us to our true destination: purity of heart and the kingdom of God.
As I said, on this journey Jesus never fails to feed us with the manna of his flesh and blood: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” It is precisely this sacred reality, this mutual remaining in Jesus and he in us, that gives us life. When we remain in him, we share in the life that Jesus receives from the Father. The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ make this exchange a reality in our life.
But it is not only the blessings of God that we must remember. The author of Deuteronomy also gives warnings not to forget or take God’s blessings for granted. The same goes for us. Jesus also warned his disciples. When the people murmured, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus told them, “Stop your murmuring…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” We must not forget the privilege we have of celebrating the Eucharist daily. We must nourish our faith by meditating on Our Lord’s words, spend time in silence before the Blessed Sacrament as Mary of Bethany did, and keep our way of life most pure, frequently approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation all out of a desire to remain united with our Lord in the Eucharist. “For the Eucharist contains the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely, Christ himself, our Pasch.”
This is the paradox: the Eucharist is not only the greatest gift our Savior has left us – that is, his very self – but it is also “a stumbling block; the stone which the builders rejected; a stone that will make people stumble and a rock that will make them fall.” “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” This saying has always been and will always be a scandal, a hard saying that will cause people to turn away. St. Paul says, “A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.” But for us who have been given the inestimable gift of faith, the Eucharist makes us a “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own…Once we were “no people” but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy but now, we have received mercy.”
Jesus in the Eucharist is our rock of mercy who has accompanied us and directed us through all the stages of our journey. The Father has drawn us to Jesus in the Sacrament, to an intimacy which makes all the seraph serpents and scorpions bearable. “Once we were ‘no people’ but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy but now, we have received mercy” in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
