The Eucharist is Jesus Himself, Lovingly Given by Fr. Sean Grismer | Eucharistic Encounters #advent

The Eucharist is Jesus himself, lovingly given to heal our broken connection with God and fill the deepest hunger of our hearts. In his calling, a priest discovers the profound privilege of holding Christ’s very presence—a gift beyond anything the world can offer—so he can bring God’s love to those longing for communion with Him.

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Transcript

When was the first time that you realized the Holy Eucharist was Jesus Christ? When was the first time you realized that when you receive communion, you’re actually receiving the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus?

When we realize that it’s him—and maybe we’re not there yet. Maybe you haven’t had a revelation. That’s okay. Wherever we’re at is okay because he wants to reveal himself. Some people will say, “Well, why hasn’t he done it?” Sometimes, I think it’s because we don’t hunger for it. We maybe don’t express our hunger for it.

I think every person does hunger for it because we have to remember that the Eucharist isn’t our idea. It was his idea to give himself to us, to feed us. Therefore, what is he feeding? Some sort of hunger that already exists—a spiritual hunger.

I was recently sitting at a restaurant, and a couple sat down next to me. We lightly engaged in conversation. As we talked about church, the wife shared that she was Catholic, while the husband was not. He said something interesting: “Every time you go into a Catholic church, I find this peace.” The wife, being as good-natured as she was, responded, “Yeah, there’s a connection with the spiritual.” I looked at the man and said, “But there’s something more, isn’t there?”

It’s not just the peace that you encounter but the person. You’re encountering a relationship that you’ve been invited into. When you come into a church, that person is Jesus, and he’s the King of Peace, which is why you feel peace. It’s like when I come into the presence of another person—I can sometimes pick up what’s there. What they’re feeling, what they’re expressing—if they’re angry, I can pick that up. If I go to a little league baseball game and the dad is yelling, I pick it up. And so it is in the church. I walk into the church, and I have some sort of reaction. Why? Because it’s not just a sense or a thing. It’s a person. He’s a person. The Eucharist is a person, and that person is Jesus.

We have to ask the question: why does he do this? The very fact that he gives himself as food tells us the answer. Because I have a spiritual hunger. I have been made to commune with God. But because of the brokenness of relationship from the sin of Adam and Eve, that communion has been separated and passed down to us. He wants to renew and reestablish within us the gift of connection, the gift of communion with himself. And so he feeds us.

One, we get nourished on the spiritual level because I hunger for something spiritual. If I don’t have the Eucharist, what do I have? I go to something else. I go to a pagan thing. I go to New Age. I go to something that tries to satisfy but does not satisfy me for what I’ve been made from and for what I’ve been made for. The Eucharist is the sustenance that God has given me in this life. It is the thing that puts me into relationship with God in a communion of love.

What is love? Desiring the good of another. If I have children—as a priest, I do not have any biological children, but I have spiritual children—I’m willing to go to the depths for them out of love. Just as Jesus, in his love for us, is willing to go to the depths.

My own calling to the priesthood happened when I was in a jewelry store. I was working, and for one hour, I held various items people brought in: diamonds, pearls, gold, silver, watches. Time is precious to people. They held all these things that the world says are the most worthy of all things. Yes, “diamonds are forever,” and yet they’re not.

I was sharing the fullness of that story with a group one time, and the Lord broke in. He showed me, “Sean, you were holding the most precious things this world could give, and I called you in that hour to join the seminary, to become a priest, to hold something the world cannot give—my body, my blood, my soul, and divinity. I want you to feed my children who are starving spiritually. I want you to feed them with my very body because I love them and desire to be in communion with them.”