Skip to main content

Go to church for the food

When someone asks me "Why should I go for mass, can't I just pray at home?". I tell them, go for 'The Food'. 

 Let me explain...
There is a shop in my area by the name of Theobroma meaning 'food of the gods' and it is exactly opposite the church, where you get 'food from God'. Which of these are of greater value, an expensive red velvet cake or a simple circular wafer which is given freely, yet at a great price, the COST OF ONE'S LIFE? Who would imagine that a humble wafer has the power to tear the veil that separates the heavens from earth, bringing the Lord of heaven to reside in us?

Food from heaven
It was by eating the forbidden fruit (disobedience to God) that Adam turned away from God. Jesus bridges the gap between God and man, by offering his own body (Obedience to the Father) so that he may come and live in us. It was manna 'food from heaven' that kept the Israelite's alive in the wilderness. Whether we realize it or not, we are all on a journey to the Promised Land i.e. heaven, but God in his goodness gives us a taste of heaven right here on earth, so that our souls do not perish along the way.

Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. John6:53-54

Jesus explains scripture over dinner
The best conversations happen over good food and wine. Jesus seemed to realize that as he often sat at the table with  man. He seems to be eating all through the Gospels. Maybe that's why some of the most significant conversions took place around the dinner table. He ate and drank with the tax collectors and sinners, who then began to follow him. Not only did he nourish the souls of the thousands of people that followed him, but he also multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fishes to nourish their bodies. After his resurrection, he opened up scripture to the disheartened disciples on the road to Emmaus but it was during the meal that they truly understood who he was.

Jesus celebrates the first mass 
When Jesus knew he was to die and could no longer sit down and eat with his disciples, he celebrated the first mass ever, at the Last Super and asked his disciples to implement it saying, "do this in memory of me". His words "This is my body", is to be taken literally and not symbolically as most people argue. If he meant it as a metaphor, he would have made it clear to the people who felt repulsed by it and to the other disciples who began turning away from him as this teaching was too difficult for them to accept (John6:52-66). By giving us his body to eat, he made it possible for us living centuries after his crucifixion, to be partakers of the perfect sacrifice, offered once and for all for sin. He left his Bride i.e. the Church, a memorial to sustain her in her earthly journey, until she once again sits at the heavenly banquet with her Lord.

The mass is the holiest thing on earth and it will be meaningful to you only when you offer life, your pain, your joys along with the bread and wine at the altar. So that the same Spirit that sanctifies the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ will sanctify your life, making it a perfect gift to God.



Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 22, 2018 at 1:19 AM

    Wow I there is a lot I can learn from you

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 26, 2018 at 11:19 PM

    Great writing Karen you have won my heart. God bless you abundantly. Continue doing the good work.
    Love Russel

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Turning point

Around 7 years ago, I questioned everything, including the existence of a God. I went to mass like a regular Catholic, but I didn't utter a word for that whole one hour. It was a routine, a reason to meet friends. I did pray occasionally when I needed something, but after a point of time I stopped doing even that because I found it pointless, not a single prayer was answered. Was there a God? Then came the darkness I hear whispers of my mother going for a checkup, I see on her face something is wrong, but I don't understand it. I push the thought away because just a few days later, my sister suddenly cries out in pain. She cannot breath, she is gasping and is rushed to the hospital at night. Her lungs were filling up with water and the doctors don't seem to know what to do with it. My parents ask me to stay with my sister in hospital one day because my mother had to go for a lung biopsy. I knew they were doing it to detect cancer but I didn't want to think '
10 comments
Read more

Tempting, Isn't it?

Oscar Wilde, once said "I can resist everything except temptation." However the Bible would disagree, "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1Corinthians 10:13) Temptations on their own are not the problem, it is only when we give into them that they lead us down the path of sin. On the contrary, resisting them actually makes us stronger and holier. The reason we fall into sin is because temptations appear in the disguise of something good. Greek mythology speaks of Sirens, which were dangerous monsters that used to sing sweet enchanting music to lure sailors on to rocky shores resulting in shipwrecks and death. In the same way even sin entered the world when Eve, decided to eat the forbidden fruit, which on its own seemed harmless and was probably tasty but in her doing so, she defied God, bringing destruction to herself and to the h
1 comment
Read more

Do we Catholics really eat the body of Christ?

I would be lying if I told you that I always believed in the changing of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. In fact it was only recently, after much reading, it all began to come together for me. I had 4 questions to which I needed answers and here is what I found: Why did Jesus need to give us his body? In order to understand this, we need to go to the very beginning, to Genesis. It was in the garden of Eden that man's obedience to God was tested, Jesus was also in a garden when his obedience to God was tested, the garden of Gethsemane. Adam failed the test and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, Jesus chose the right tree, he chose the tree of life. The cross was also called the tree in the Bible, "cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" (Galatians 3:13). Before sin, Adam walked with God in the garden and seen the face of God but after he sinned he hid from God's presence. Sin brought distance between God and man, it also brought death i
2 comments
Read more

Are statues in churches idolatrous?

Most people often accuse Catholics of idolatry by quoting Exodus 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." This verse is in the context of the first commandment 'I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me. Since the Israelites never seen God, they resorted to making images of created things and worshiped it as god which was prohibited then and still holds true for us today. However, does it mean that God prohibited the making of all statues? God himself ordered the making of statues Just 5 chapters after the prohibition on making idols, God orders the making of enormous gold cherubim on the mercy seat of the Ark of the covenant in Exodus 25. The Ark of the covenant was revered by the whole of Israel and was considered most sacred. Hence it is clear that, God did not have an issue with all statues, but only
Post a Comment
Read more

Understanding the mass through the Prophet Isaiah

I have been going to church ever since I was a kid and it became more of a habit as I didn't really understand what was happening during the mass. I would stand when the congregation stood, sit when they sat, I wouldn't utter a single prayer, grumble when the sermon was too long and wait for the mass to end. However, it all changed after I read Isaiah 6 which describes the 'call of Isaiah'. When I first read the passage, it didn't really affect me, but standing there during mass, the verses just shot out at me. I began to realize that what Isaiah described in the Old Testament foreshadowed the Eucharist that we celebrate today. Going to church had a whole new meaning for me ever since... What should we look forward to at mass? Isaiah went to the Temple of Jerusalem in 742 BC where he saw a vision of God on a high throne and he felt the glory of God fill the temple. There he saw the Seraphim, meaning 'fiery beings' attending to the one on the throne
3 comments
Read more