transformed by what we eat - 23rd week saturday 2014

The controversy of eating meat offered to idols is dealt yet again.  This time Paul compares it the Eucharist.  We become what we eat.  That is why the word to describe eating meat offered to idols or eating the bread and wine offered in the Eucharist is to participate – we participate in the meal, meaning we become one with what we eat.  Today we substitute the word participation with communion, we receive communion, meaning we become one with what we eat.

Because of this understanding the passage in today’s first reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians has produced a lot of commentaries on what this participation in the body of Christ implies.  St. John Chrysostom whose feast we celebrate today would comment on this passage saying, "What in fact is the bread? It is the body of Christ. What do they become who receive Communion? They become the body of Christ."  This is what eating the Eucharist means – we become the body of Christ, we become a communion, a community.

But before all of us can become the body of Christ, before we can become a communion, St Augustine says these words which he placed on Jesus' lips to describe what happens in Communion:  "You will not change me into you as happens with bodily food; rather, you will be changed into me"  We have to become what we eat, to allow the Lord to transform us to himself.