“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." (John 6:51)1

In a recent homily Pope Benedict XVI said, “We cannot live without joining together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. We would lack the strength to face our daily problems and not to succumb.”2

Strength for the Journey

Just as God gave the Israelites manna in the desert, Jesus gives us his body as food to sustain us on our desert journey. Our Holy Father Benedict tells us that “from a spiritual point of view, the world in which we find ourselves, often marked by unbridled consumerism, religious indifference, and a secularism closed to transcendence, can appear a desert just as vast and terrible” as the one the Israelites traversed. He goes on to say, “We need this Bread to face the fatigue and weariness of our journey. Sunday, the Lord's Day, is a favorable opportunity to draw strength from him, the Lord of life.”

God Does Not Need Sunday Liturgies. We Do!

Our young people often see Sunday Mass as an obligation and a burden. As youth ministers we must lead them through our words and example to the realization that the Eucharist is a great gift from God–the way to eternal life and true happiness.

“Being nourished by the Eucharistic Bread and experiencing the communion of their brothers and sisters in Christ,” our Holy Father says, “is a need for Christians, it is a joy; Christians can thus replenish the energy they need to continue on the journey we must make every week.”

The Word made flesh is now our life-giving bread. This is cause for celebration and great rejoicing!

 

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Notes

1. New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

2. Quotes in this article are from the homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at the closing of the 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress, in Bari on May 29, 2005. It can be found on the Vatican Website.