When you fall in love with the Eucharist, you fall in love with Jesus Christ

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Jan 18, 2026

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011826.cfm

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6   Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

1 Corinthians 1:1-3    John 1:29-34

John the Baptist knew Jesus.  They were cousins, so that makes sense.  But John tells us he didn't know Jesus. I think what John was talking about is that he didn't know that Jesus really was the Son of God. Last week, we heard how John baptised Jesus.  The Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus - that is when John knew who Jesus was! Today, we hear that John knew who Jesus was on another level as he proclaims:

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

John used language that Jewish people would understand.  We may not fully grasp the connection today, but it harkens back to the book of Exodus and the Passover.  Exodus 12 describes the rules for the Passover Ritual, the thing the Jews had to do to be saved:

Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month, every family must procure for itself a lamb… Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish… They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They will consume its meat that same night…

Jews sacrificed lambs, particularly for Passover, by selecting a perfect male lamb, slaughtering it in the Temple courtyard, and having priests collect its blood to sprinkle on the altar while the owner roasted and ate the meat with family. This was a solemn, communal act of remembrance and thanks, marking God's protection in Egypt. 

These words and actions should be at least remotely familiar to all of us!  This is a snippet taken from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the book all priests use at every Mass, the one on the altar, which reads:

The Priest genuflects, takes the host and, holding it slightly raised above the paten or above the chalice, while facing the people, says aloud: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

Blessed are we indeed!  Jesus became the perfect sacrifice, the sinless “Lamb of God,” and his offering was pure and final, until the end of time.  He gave his life willingly, not just for his followers, but also for his enemies and those who persecuted him.  His sacrifice is eternally effective, extending to us today and on into the future.  We experience this sacrifice today, a bit different, a bit cleaner, if you will.  Today we experience this sacrifice in the Eucharist.  Here are some summaries from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Eucharist:

It is a perpetuation of Christ's Sacrifice (CCC 1323, 1351): At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist to "perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again," entrusting it as a memorial to His Church.

It is one single sacrifice (CCC 1367): The Mass makes present the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross; it's the same Christ who offered Himself, but the manner of offering (unbloody) is different from the bloody sacrifice on the cross.

Christ is Present (CCC 1374): Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the priest's words, the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ, really and substantially present.

Source and Summit (CCC 1324): The Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life," completing Christian initiation and uniting believers more deeply with Christ.

A Sacrament of Love (CCC 1323): It's a "sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet" where Christ is consumed, grace is received, and glory is pledged.

Offered for All (CCC 1369): As a sacrifice, it's offered for all the faithful (living and dead) for the forgiveness of sins and to obtain spiritual benefits.

So what are we supposed to do with all this information?  I suggest this week get to confession if you haven’t been in a while.  Let the Lamb of God take away your sins. Unclog that pipeline of God’s grace into your life.  After that, fall in love with the Eucharist all over again because when you fall in love with the Eucharist, you fall in love with Jesus Christ!

I pray that this week we all come to realize the words of St Thomas Aquinas: 

The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life

Deacon Kevin Gingras

August 18, 2024

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081824.cfm

Prv 9:1-6     Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Eph 5:15-20    Jn 6:51-58

I came across a photo of me from long ago.  It was very long ago.  At that time I was in great shape, I had, what you would call, six-pack abs.  I worked out every day and ran three to four miles daily and it showed.  Now, not so much.  Now I fish.  I try to convince myself that fishing is a sport but I don’t look like what I used to so it’s difficult to convince people I’m still an athlete!  

Like any sport or endeavor, if you want to advance, you have to practice. You have to keep up with the work, which, clearly, I did not!  This is also true for our faith and that brings us to today’s readings.

Jesus was trying to advance their faith, to get them to level up in their understanding of who He is and what it is He is about to do.  This was going to be a difficult workout for them, for some of them it would be too hard.

Jesus begins by telling them that He is the bread from Heaven and that:

whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

Well, that’s kind of shocking, I can understand why the Jews began to quarrel among themselves.  Eat his flesh?  But Jesus doubles down:

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,

Now you have to go back to the original Greek that this was written in to fully understand what Jesus was saying.  The first word Jesus used to describe eating his flesh was “phago” which simply means to eat like a human normally would.  After the Jews quarreled among themselves the word Jesus used was “trogo” which means to munch or to gnaw, as an animal would do!  This statement would be much more graphic!  It was indeed a hard saying.  It was meant to grow their faith in Jesus Christ himself and prepare them for the Eucharist He would establish at the last supper that lasts even until today.

Some were ready for that workout as the early church truly believed in the real presence. Back in 112 AD Pliny the Younger, the governor of a Roman province went to look into what these Christians were doing, thinking, perhaps, that they were cannibals! He wrote a letter back to the Emperor Trajan and in the letter, Pliny describes the practices of these alleged “criminals”:

“They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”

What stands out is that the letter states that they partake of food of an ordinary and innocent kind.   Pliny stressed that it was ordinary food because back then Christians were thought to be cannibals since they ate the flesh and drank the blood of Jesus Christ!  Yes, the early Catholics, just like we do today, eat the true flesh of Christ at the Eucharistic feast.

I think Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel challenge us to the same spiritual workout.  They call us to level up our faith in the Eucharist.  As St Paul told the Ephesians:

be filled with the Spirit … giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father

And we can thank Him personally, here today at Mass, present in the Eucharist.  We need to level up our faith in Jesus ever present in the Eucharist.  Our gym is the Church and the Adoration Chapel.  Spend time in adoration, face-to-face with Jesus Himself. Our workout should include praying to the Holy Spirit to strengthen our belief.  One of our tougher gym workouts is Confession, but don’t skip Confession Day!  Try to go often, at least monthly.  That will strengthen you more than you can imagine!

All of this is to give us the spiritual muscle to fight the demons Satan will send our way during our time on Earth.  All this is to help keep us strong when the temptations of life come our way.  This way when we have finished the Earthly race we can spend eternity.  St. Ambrose gives us a great workout plan:

 “Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light.”