Heart to Heart Chat
† Heart to Heart Chat – April 21, 2024
What is the difference between a junk food and a healthy food? Junk food can be tasty and very addictive. However, in the long run it can cause serious health issues. I have read somewhere about a teenager eating chicken nuggets for breakfast, lunch and supper and got into a big trouble with her health. A healthy food offers us a balanced health condition and helps us to remain healthy in every respect.
Jesus offers himself as a healthy food. He says that one who eats my body and drinks my blood will never die. His nourishment promotes health here on earth and brings us to an eternal life beyond this earthly life. As we keep eating this food regularly, there are so many spiritual benefits that keep coming into our life regularly. The first and most effective benefit is that our connectedness with Jesus becomes vibrant. We are like the vine and the branch. When our relationship with Jesus is so vibrant, then our thinking pattern also changes. We perceive things as Jesus would perceive and act like Jesus as well. It is easy to think like Jesus but not so easy to act like him. Every time when our own interests are at stake, we find it extremely hard to act generously and sacrificially. We tend to protect our own interest and so willing to sacrifice other’s interest. The spiritual nourishment we receive from the Eucharist reminds us that we cannot act like others who are not impacted by the heavenly food. Another deep impact of the Eucharist in our lives is the spiritual encouragement it brings in us. Most of our daily interactions with our material world tend to suck the good energy out of our life. It does not mean that the material life we engage with daily is bad. However, as we lose our good energy for life every day, it is the Eucharist that can replenish and be a source of life for us. Especially those who are recovering from bodily illnesses, Eucharist can be the best medicine one can think of. It can heal us internally that is all the woundedness in us can be healed by the true body of Christ. The body of Christ can help us to recognize the right needs of our life. The spiritual, emotional, relational needs that are indispensable part of our life could be sufficiently nurtured through the Eucharist that we can get healthier and healthier through a constant interaction with the Eucharistic Lord. Thus, we can understand our need to come back to the Holy Mass on every Sunday that we are fed by the Lord regularly to lead a healthy life
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. Xavier Ilango