The Holy Week Retreat - The Bread of Life Discourse - Station 11

Experience the ultimate Holy Week Retreat!

Join Fr. Jonathan Meyer (and Catholics across America!) on an epic journey through the Stations of the Eucharist. This incredible retreat will guide you through fourteen stations from Genesis to Revelation that will reshape the way you see the rest of your life. Get ready to break open the Scriptures, immerse yourself in the story of salvation history, and consider the sacrifice of Jesus Christ like never before. 

This year’s Holy Week Retreat is simple to follow. Each day, you’ll receive two reflections that will help you meditate on two of the fourteen stations. You can watch them both together, or space them out as morning and evening reflections. We’ll cover all fourteen stations by Holy Saturday so you can have the best Easter of your life!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

The eleventh station, the bread of life discourse. O Sacrament was holy, O sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine. John chapter six, I always tell people if there is a biblical passage to memorize, it is John chapter six. It is a powerful passage that reveals to us how much God loves us. Yes, John chapter 3, verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. But what do we mean by that? I mean, let's flesh that out. Literally, flesh that out. For God the Father loved the world so much that he gave us his only begotten Son, Jesus, in the most blessed sacrament. Because in John chapter 6, Jesus says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life within you. John chapter 6 is so powerful. John chapter 6 is where Jesus reveals the mystery of the Eucharist in such a profound way. And we begin to realize that this gift and mystery is so important. Let's go back to the book of Genesis, which is where we started these stations of the Eucharist. If we go back to Genesis chapter 2, Adam in the garden is told, you may eat freely of any tree in the garden. You can eat from any tree, but one tree. If you eat of this tree, you shall die. What happened? Well, they were tempted. They were tempted to eat from the tree, and spiritually they died. So God the Father says to Adam, If you eat of this tree, you will die. If you eat of this tree, you will die. If you eat of this tree, you will die. And now we have Jesus in John chapter 6. The second verse of the most holy Trinity. And what is he saying? He's saying this. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. You die. Unless you eat, you die. Unless you eat, you die. The question is, where do we get this flesh in this blood? We get it from the tree. We get it from Calvary. We get it from Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Mary, who will hang on a tree. And with his body language, he will say to you, and he will say to me, This is my body given up for you. This is my blood which is poured out, which is shed for you and for many. You see, John chapter 6 is where Jesus says, I am the new Adam. My mom, she's the new Eve. Her yes, undid, Eve's no to God's plan, and yes to the serpent. And what happened at that tree in the Garden of Eden is now being reversed. And the tree of life is the cross where I will stand and I will offer you. My saving body and my saving blood. My dear brothers and sisters, this 11th station of the Eucharist is an invitation for you and for me to receive the very body and blood of our Lord and to have it change us. The sins of Adam and Eve, they left a gap. They created a divide. And we as human beings have been fighting and living in that gap and in that divide. And yet Christ is the replacement sacrifice. Christ is the one who bridges the gap. He's the one who gives us his life. And when we choose to receive it, it changes us. I want to give you a spiritual insight that is really powerful. The next time you go to Holy Mass, I want you to pray to the Lord for a skin graft. We have the ability through science to take parts of one body and to apply it to another part of our body and to heal us and to mend us. Where in your heart is there brokenness? Where are there wounds? Where are there scars that seem to run so deep that sometimes you can't even feel that you can breathe? When you go to mass, I want you to say, Jesus, I want to receive your body, your blood, your soul, and divinity. I want to receive it, and I want you to apply it directly to that wound, to that heart of mine that needs to be mended. And our God who is faithful, our God is true, he will take his body and his blood, and he will give it to you in a powerful way. The sins of Adam and Eve, Christ's death on the cross, destroyed death forever, and gave us eternal life. And we have that promise in the Eucharist. Let's allow the bread of life discourse, John chapter six, to give us hope and meaning and peace and joy. Amen.