In some of our Churches,
they use the Thanksgiving after Mass
from the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.
This prayer gives thanks
for being fed with
the spiritual food
of the Body and Blood
of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
What does that mean?
Does it mean that
Our Lord is only present
spiritually in the
Consecrated Host
and Chalice?
This presents us
with a bit of a problem.
Our Lord says to His Disciples
"a spirit hath not flesh and bones."
He also says,
"the bread that I will give
is my flesh,
which I will give for
the life of the world."
If the Lord gives His flesh
for us to eat,
and spirits do not have flesh,
then the presence of Christ
at the Mass
cannot be a spiritual presence.
We know also,
that God is a spirit
and this means that
the Divine Nature
does not have a body.
But Jesus is God,
fully Divine,
fully Human,
He has no flesh in His Divine Nature
but in His Human Nature.
If He gives us His flesh to eat,
then He does so from His Human Nature.
But Our Lord's Divine Nature is inseparable from His Human Nature.
This means that
Our Lord is present
in the Consecrated Host
fully in both His Humanity
and His Divinity,
Flesh and Blood.
So how can what
we receive in the Mass
be spiritual food?
[PAUSE]
God is spirit and
we are to worship Him
in spirit and in truth.
If we are to worship Him in spirit,
then we are spiritual beings.
The food we receive is not
a spiritual presence.
It is food for our spirit.
Remember that
our flesh is at war with our spirit.
We human beings
are broken.
Our nature is fractured.
We are at war within ourselves.
Our Baptism changes that
because we are given
the gift of the Holy Spirit
to dwell with us and in us.
And, to make us more spiritual,
we take into ourselves
the very Flesh and Blood
of God Himself
so that our bodies
and spirits are fed.
[PAUSE]
God gives us Himself
so that we can become
like Him
and participate
in His Divine Nature.
This is why we are grateful
for His feeding us
with the food that will
grow our spirits
so that we can be like Him.
It carries the responsibility
for using what we are given
to sanctify the world
through battling against
the flesh of the world
which wants us
to deny Christ and become
just corruptible children of dust.
The Mass shows the world
that it is still loved by God
and this love is in such plentiful supply
that it breaks the boundary
between what is Human
and what is Divine.
We need to show this Mass to the world.
And, in ourselves,
we are to lift up Christ
and carry Him about,
so that through us
and by Him
the world may be brought back to Him.
We have a lot to do.
Perhaps we need to gain strength
by eating what is truly good for us.
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