MARY, OUR MOTHER

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY # 298

Then Jesus said to them: "Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me: and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me." (John 6:53-58)

THE EFFECTS OF HOLY COMMUNION are rich in blessings. He who receives the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ worthily has, in His own words, everlasting life, and will be raised up by Him at the last day. "He abides in Me, and I in him. He will live in Me!" says our Lord. The Body of Christ is a living bread, which gives us supernatural and everlasting life, and is a pledge to our bodies of a glorious resurrection. Evan after the sacred species have disappeared, a nourishing and vivifying strength is left in our souls, which is none other than the divine strength of the Son of God (Grimm). St. Cyril expounds the interior union which exists between our Lord and him who receives Holy Communion by the following simile: "Even as melted wax unites itself to wax, mingling with it, and becoming one with it, so does he who receives the Body of the Redeemer become one with Him, so completely is he united to Him."

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]
(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)