“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11: 23-26)
“Forget not Love!” - St Maximilian Mary Kolbe
Jesus loves to abide in us. “He Who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6: 56) Then, later in John’s Gospel—during Jesus’ time of intimate sharing with and intercession for His disciples while they are in Holy Communion with Him (this is when He institutes the Eucharist in the Cenacle in the Gospel of John chapters 13-17), He lovingly exhorts His disciples (and us!) not to forget to remember to eat their daily bread—His flesh and blood—by receiving the Bread from Heaven daily in Holy Communion. He is pleading with them (and us!) to “Abide in Me and I in you!” (John 15:4) by receiving Holy Communion as often as possible for “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim—you remember!— the death—the love!—of the Lord until He comes.” (See 1 Corinthians 11: 26)
He pleads with you.
Jesus’ flesh and blood is our daily bread and our inheritance from Heaven as Christians. “I came that they might have ͏life and have it to the full!” (John 10:10) and “I am the living bread which came down from Heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.” - John 6:51) Knowing that even our bodies need food every day God gave the Israelites the Manna in the desert to eat every day and likewise Jesus, God-made-flesh and born in the House of Bread (Bethlehem), exhorts us to eat the Living Bread every day. He begs us not only through His teaching in the Scriptures but also through His teaching in the Magisterium (“He who hears you hears Me”) and by His teaching through the example of the Saints’ lives who most authentically lived in Christ and show us how to do so, “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me.” (John 6:57)
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) “And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)
In fact, His commandments are very sweet. “You have given them bread from Heaven, having all sweetness within it!” (Antiphon from the Rite of Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament”
He pleads with you and with me with a desperate love:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11: 28-30)
Let us allow ourselves to be yoked to Jesus, our daily bread, in Holy Communion every day and so find rest for our souls. This is the light burden He calls us to; to rest on His heart and more: to abide in His Heart. “Abide in Me and I in you.”
Say, “Yes! I swear this covenant with you! Amen!” when at Mass we are proposed the words, “The Body of Christ.”
It means, “All of you for all of me for always.”
