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"The Eucharist in My Life: Strength for the Battle"
by Jeffrey Montz (seminarian)
Through my four years in the seminary, I have come to realize that
life is full of struggles and suffering. There are the physical
sufferings that we all face, but more difficult, and probably less
noticed, are the spiritual battles that we face at every moment
of our lives. As a fallen human being, I am already weakened by
my tendency toward sin. To make matters more serious, Satan and
his legions of demons are seeking to draw me even further into this
web of sin. Using the darkness that resides in my soul and that
which covers much of the world, Satan sends a cold fog of deceit
around me, blocking the light of Christ from warming my heart. Having
found myself blinded in this fog, I have recognized that I, by myself,
am helpless in this situation.
However, I have also learned that the situation is not hopeless.
To combat the evil that we all face in this life, God has
sent His only Son into the world. Jesus, His Son, not only
walked the path to heaven for all to see, but He left behind
all the weapons that we need to succeed in this great battle.
While there are many weapons to choose from, I would like
to talk about the one weapon which is essential for all Catholics,
namely the Most Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the very
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. In receiving
the Eucharist, we become one with the Mystical Body of Christ.
Becoming one with Christ, I become that sun which emits flaming
light. Thus, while the fog of sin may be too thick for me
to fan away by myself, united with Christ in the Eucharist,
the fog instantly evaporates, as the flames of Christ's love
blaze from my heart.
Since this battle with sin is a daily struggle, I have found
daily communion to be most beneficial. In the Our Father we
ask for our daily bread. The Eucharist is for me the daily
bread that I need to stay alive in this war. United with Christ
though, not only do I stay alive, but I win victories for
heaven. When we truly take the Eucharist to heart, we abandon
ourselves to Him who cannot lose. Having abandoned ourselves
to Him, Christ will form us into His soldiers. Now, there
are times that I stray from the protection of Christ by sinning.
In these cases I am wounded by the evil powers; however, in
the Eucharist I have found all of the healing that I need.
Many times, the healing is not what I expected, nor does it
come at the time that I expect it, but I must say that Christ
has never failed to give me what I need through the Eucharist.
The fact is, whether or not we realize it, we are in a battle
for our souls. For those of us who realize this truth, we
must also realize that on our own, we are unable to survive.
Our only option is to fight under the banner of the victorious
Christ. What better way can we fulfill this than to unite
ourselves to Christ? When we, as a Church, receive the Eucharist
with a pure heart, we become the Mystical Body of Christ,
an army more terrible than all the powers of hell combined.
Indeed, as St. John Vianney once said, "by Holy Communion
the adorable blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins,
and his Flesh is truly mingled with ours. We are united to
his person, his divinity, and his whole power…"
Knowing this, every time we receive the Eucharist, we will
be able to exclaim, "Oh, how sweet a life is that life
of union with the good God! It is heaven on earth; there are
no more troubles, no more crosses."
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