Conversion: Our response to the Gift

Throughout this Year of the Eucharist, we are asked to consider the great gift of the Eucharist in the Church and reflect on the appropriate response to this great gift.

Gift and Response: When someone receives a gift, we rightly have expectations for that person. As a college student who received a scholarship, I was expected to work hard in school and achieve success. When commissioned as an Army officer, I was expected to work hard and share the suffering of soldiers in my command. In his Eucharis­tic gift, God makes himself small for us, so that we can grasp him, and he can make his love a part of us. How are we expected to respond to this unearned gift of love? God calls us to acknowledge our sins and change.

Sin and Pride: If asked to picture a sinner, whom would we picture: an adulterer, a thief, a murderer, an American politician? Like the Pharisee who exalted himself at the temple, it is comforting to look around to find “worse” sinners (Luk 18:9). Christ instructs us to focus on our own thoughts and actions (Mt 7:5) and if asked to picture a sinner we must only picture ourselves. We usually work hard to avoid seeing our own sinfulness because it injures our pride. Part of our response to God’s Eucharistic gift and to recognize ourselves as sinners.

Confession: Pope Francis wrote, “The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” The Church challenges us to acknowledge our sinfulness and weakness. At the beginning of Mass, we make a general confession stating, “I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.” This is an important step, but this doesn’t always prepare us sufficiently to receive the gift of Christ’s body and blood.

Grave Sin: In life, there may be times we commit grave sin; freely and willingly choosing to perform a serious offense against God and neighbor. The Ten Commandments name a few grave sins such as stealing, injuring, perjury, killing the innocent. Personal Confession and Reconcili­ation is expected and required before Holy Communion when we have allowed grave sins to separate us from God and from his Church.

Reconciliation: The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is always available to us. Our priests, acting in the person of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, can forgive our sins. Reconciliation and Penance is a powerful act of humility and trust which heal our souls and restores our communion with the Church. Before we receive the Eucharist in Mass we pray, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” We plead with God to heal our souls and we must be willing to allow his Eucharist to change our hearts.

Conversion: The Eucharist is a call to conversion, a call to take Christ into our hearts and be reborn as the people God created us to be. When he gives us this gift, he has high expectations for us. He expects us to model his humble, self-sacrificing love in our lives and to help heal the world. St. Padre Pio’s prayer after Communion includes the words, “Stay with me Lord because I am weak and need your strength that I may not fall so often.” In my experience, Eucharist is a constant and recurrent call to conversion. Week by week, day by day, I try to live up to God’s expectations only to fail. I am kind, but I am impatient. I heal, but then hurt with critical words. I love, but often hold back something for myself. Thank God that he nourishes me, strengthens me, and renews me whenever I go to him, kneel, and receive his Eucharist.