The consideration of the Eucharist as gift is beautiful.
Someone recently pointed me in the direction of a Fr. Mike Schmitz and this talk at the Seek Conference 2015.
vimeo.com/115924659
He talks about the Eucharist as gift. I think the idea of gift is echoed, and substantialized in Love and Responsibility, Theology of the Body, and Jason Evert.
Everything really comes back to the Wedding/Marriage feast. Especially the Eucharist. Man and Woman were made to enter into a union which creates “one flesh”. In Ephesians, men are called to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. First and foremost, Christ offers up his body as gift for the salvation of our souls. But secondly, we participate in a union of Christ through the Holy Eucharist. Christ gives his body to us, much like the husband and wife give eachother their whole self (including their bodies).
Christ says that, “I am the Living Bread.” Bread sustains us in a really true sense. We need those carbs. Bread sustained the Israelites in the desert. There came down manna from heaven which was kept in a tabernacle-sort of storage, or sacred vessel. This manna sustained us in the harsh reality of hunger and work. Christ offers himself as the Divine Manna, which sustains us spiritually and physically. A freely offered gift to sustain us in our trials.
I love the connection between Tolkien’s lembas bread and the Eucharist. A paraphrased quote from the LOTR, as they ate more and more of the lembas, they came to rely on it alone. Their hunger for other foods dissipated. How true is this about the Eucharist? The more we come to rely on it, and on it alone, the less we desire earthly things. It becomes the Gift of all gifts.
