When Jesus said this, he was teaching his followers that he alone is the source of life that will never perish, spoils, or run out.
But some of his disciples didn't understand him.
One of them was Judas lscariot, who grew frustrated with Jesus and rejected the gift of the Eucharist in his heart because he knew it was driving many people away.
Perhaps it was this interior failure that led Judas to betray Jesus.
It was in the Passover meal when Jesus said, "someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me".
Like Judas lscariot, a lot of people are afraid to take Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
What is in the Eucharist? Why do a lot of people spend so much time on their gadgets and sports rather than spend time in the Eucharist?
Are they like Judas, are they afraid that something may happen when they do it?
There was a story written anonymously about a man walking in the forest.
"While walking in the forest he saw a tree covered with insects.
“I did not at first see that they were insects,” the story tells us.
“They were sitting on the leaves, and I thought they were leaves, until I looked carefully and saw they were not Ieaves, but insects.
“ln colors, shapes and everything, they were just like the leaves of a tree.
“A man Iiving in the forest told me that these insects were born on the tree, they eat the tree, and the tree is everything to them, and so they are exactly like the leave of the tree."
Like the insects in the story, in the Eucharist, since he is everything to us, we will become like Christ.
Some people have always said "you are what you eat".
The more you receive him, the more you will become like him.
~ Contributed by Fr Line Abilgos of St Michael’s Catholic Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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