Our Hearts Are Restless

 

Learning to love the Eucharist more than anything

06/07/2026

John 6:51-58 Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Do you have a love hate relationship with food? There are some foods you really love – like a juice steak – and others you really hate – like liver and onions. And sometimes we love and hate the exact same food, like cheesecake. Because after a huge piece of it, we later look down, and say, “A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!”

Today we celebrate the Body and Blood of Jesus, our Eucharistic Food, and so we must ask: do we have a love-hate relationship with Mass? How’s that possible? Well, when we are an 8-year-old and make our First Holy Communion, we love the Eucharist. But when we are 20-years-olds in college, we moan and groan, “Ugh! Why do I have to go to Mass?!” And we usually don’t go.

Today, I want to give you four reasons to love the Eucharist. First, if you listen closely to your heart, you will discover that it loves the Eucharist more than anything. Why? Simple: because the Eucharist is Jesus Himself. And our hearts were made for Christ. As St. Augustine famously said: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

When I was in high school I had the habit of going to 6:45 a.m. Mass at the Carmelite Monastery in Little Rock. Now, to get to the monastery, I had to drive across town and that usually made me a few minutes late. One day, late as usual, I tried to sneak unnoticed into my pew and Fr. George Tribou, the priest, glared at me over his glasses. I thought: “Give me a brake! I just brought the average age of the congregation down by 50 years!”

Here at I.C. we have 7 a.m. Mass every morning, and I too see young people at morning Mass (sometimes they’re late too). I’ve seen Jackson Dart, Jordan Dart (now Smith), Hailey Hadley, Eva Edwards, Daniela Hernandez, and Lindsay Harris. Several years ago Taylor Wewers (now Bagsby) used to drag her little brothers, Matthew and Michael to Mass. And poor Michael would be half asleep with his head on the pew in front of him.

Maybe their heads didn’t know exactly why they came, but their hearts were restless until they rested in Jesus. I used to take Communion to Dr. Jim Post who was 101 years old. And when I gave him Holy Communion, tears would run down his cheeks. One day, we will all weep with joy to receive the Eucharist, and we will all weep with sorrow for the Sundays we missed Mass.

A second reason we love the Eucharist is because it is the Food of eternal life. Now, all food helps us to live longer: that’s why we eat. And the healthier the food, the longer we will live. Well, the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist is designed as food to give us eternal life. How does it do that?

Because what we eat in Holy Communion is Jesus’ resurrected Body. That blessed Bread doesn’t become Jesus’ earthly Body like when he walked around Palestine 2,000 years ago. Rather it is his heavenly Body as it is today in glory. And because our bodies are filled with Jesus’ resurrected Body, our bodies will rise from the dead, too.

In other words, the Eucharist gives us something no other food can, no matter how healthy, namely, everlasting life. Every funeral, therefore, is filled with the hope of resurrection because that deceased person ate the Bread of Life. The second reason you should love the Eucharist is because it is the Medicine of immortality; it raises the dead.

The third reason to love the Eucharist is because this is our weekly opportunity to say thank you to God for everything we have. In 1 Co 4:7 St. Paul rhetorically asks the Corinthians: “What do you have that you have not received?” The correct answer is: “nothing.” Everything, even our bodies, our talents, and our next breath is a gift from God. Every day is Christmas! And therefore, the right response to a Christmas present is gratitude.

Last week I received many cards and notes telling me “thank you” for being a priest for 30 years. But I too feel a deep debt of gratitude to God. Why? Well, because these past 30 years are not my work but the work of God’s grace in me. The priesthood is God’s Christmas present to me, and to you.

We come to Mass to say thanks because everything is a gift. Or maybe we skip Mass because we think everything is not a gift. What a stupendous error. But ask yourself: “What do you have that you have not received?” The third reason to love the Mass, therefore, is it is out thanksgiving for everything.

The fourth reason to love the Eucharist is because Pope John Paul II called the Eucharist, “the sacrament of the Bride and Groom.” He explained: “For in the Eucharist Jesus Christ and his Bride become one flesh, analogous to the way husband and wife become one flesh in the conjugal act.” Have you ever wondered why all little girls dress up like brides with veils when they make their first Holy Communion?

That cute dress is no accident but announces a marvelous mystery: we the Church are the Bride, and we become one flesh with Christ, our Groom because we eat his Flesh. That’s why some Catholics prefer to receive Communion on the tongue, like newlyweds put a small piece of cake on each other’s tongues. We love the Mass because it makes us one with Christ, who's not only our Savior but also our Spouse.

We all have a love-hate relationship with food, and that can carry over to the Mass. But one day we will love the Eucharist more than life itself, because the Eucharist is Jesus, and he is larger than life itself. Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said: “Once you understand the Eucharist, you can never leave the Church. Not because the Church won’t let you, but because your heart won’t let you.” And maybe that’s why I got up early to go to Mass as a teenager, even if I got there late. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!