Jesus reveals himself by eating

Jesus makes himself known by eating; Jesus reveals himself while he is eating; and the disciples came to know Jesus while he was sitting for dinner and eating. In our gospel yesterday he was specifically recognized when he sat down to eat, when he broke the bread. And again in the gospel to prove that it was really him and that he was alive he ate a piece of baked fish which they offered him.
Eating is a basic human instinct and it is not just human but a characteristic of all things living. A living thing and a person for that matter stops eating it also starts dying. The act of eating therefore symbolizes life. If you notice often times as proof that one is in near perfect health we often say maayo man ang panga-on niya – he eats well and therefore he is healthy, he is alive, and therefore he will live. On the contrary, a person who refuses to eat signifies his impending demise because without food the body beginning with its smallest members slowly die out.


I believe that this is the reason why it is not enough to just listen to God’s word. It is not enough to read the bible and be nourished so to say by the word of God. It is needed, and it should not be denied and we should not be deprived of the nourishing word of God in scriptures. But one has to eat to be truly alive, one must have something to eat literally as proof that one is in the pink of health. That is why we need the Eucharist and by the Eucharist I do not merely mean to attend mass but to culminate it, to complete it by eating, by receiving Holy Communion.
When we are living in sin we do not receive holy communion because we are not in the pink of health. The soul that has cut itself off from the giver of life because of sin cannot receive the true bread because we are not alive so to speak, we are dead because of sin. Thus it is important to restore our health first before we can eat and satisfy ourselves fully by the true food that comes from God.
When Jesus reveals himself through eating, specifically through the breaking of the bread he is telling us that the Eucharist is a necessary fare, it is here where we get our strength, it is here that we nourish our life, it is here that we grow.
This is what the documents of the church has been saying all the while, that the Eucharist is central to our life, that the Eucharist is important, that the community and the life of each individual is centered in the Eucharist.