The Priesthood and the Eucharist

by © LPi Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman  |  06/11/2023  |  Weekly Reflection

“These two Sacraments were born together,” wrote St. John Paul II of the priesthood and the Eucharist, “and their destiny is indissolubly linked until the end of the world.”

The Eucharist is such a beautiful example of how God, conscious of our limitations, bends to meet us. He once came to us cloaked in the flesh, that we might recognize Him. Now He comes as the very means by which we nourish ourselves: food and drink, the most familiar and comforting thing in the world to us. How easy He makes it to fulfill his command that we become one with Him. How generous He is to make such a sacred thing also accessible.

We can say the same of the priesthood, and of the men He calls to its number. How generous of Him to make such an accessible thing - our sons, our brothers, our uncles, our cousins - sacred. How generous of Him to allow these human creations - who share in our own faults - to be the means through which He comes to us in the Eucharist.

Without the Eucharist, we would have no eternal life. Without priests, we would have no Eucharist. On this, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, let’s give thanks for our priests, and redouble our prayers that God will send us good and holy ones - manna from Heaven in our wandering exile.

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
— John 6:54