Faith

Here is a meditation on the Eucharist by a Carmelite tertiary who shall be known on this blog as Mi Amigo: 

If God, by His Word, who incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth, created the world, if He breathed into each of us His life, why cannot God submit Himself in all His fullness into bread and wine so that we may eat with Him in communion? If He chooses this manner of giving Himself to us, this simple and humble form of communion that, in our “advanced” modern age, really makes more sense than any other way, if He chooses this manner to feed us while at the same time forming us by His sustenance into a temple in which He desires to dwell, we who so earnestly desire His presence, what is there to doubt? 

Our being, and its development during the short period of our lives, alone, is a miracle in itself. We take in food to give our bodies sustenance, as He determined from the beginning of ages; how simply, magnificently meaningful, that He has determined to build and sustain each of us as His temple to receive His presence by giving Himself to us as food?

Giving Himself to us in consecrated bread and wine is Wisdom: the Wisdom spoken of and anticipated by Moses, Noah, David, Solomon, Daniel, Ben Sirach, Elijah who was fed by the raven, and Isaiah, among others, and possibly most notably, the Wisdom that Melchisedec celebrated with Abraham. This Wisdom calls us to step out onto the water and keep our gaze fixed on His, knowing and trusting in His power, His fidelity, His interest in our individual and communal fulfillment, trusting that this world, after all, is His, to step out of our comfort zones walled in by insubstantial pride, to follow after Him with trust and love, without shame or fear, and to experience, live and share, the continuing miracle, the gift, the freedom, of His being, His life, the answer to the human inquiry, "what is love?"

This is the day the Lord has made; this is the way He has chosen to give Himself to us, Himself being the Way. Faith.

In a world in which we take pride in our technological advancement, cell phones, internet, medicine, political correctness, and a short period of relative self-dependence that ends in the earth from which it emerged, God gives Himself to us in the simple elements of bread and wine, a Stone upon which the proud trip and stumble.

"If deliberately cultivated, doubt can lead to spiritual blindness." CCC 2088