Thursday in the Third Week of Easter

We pray through Easter with Saint Irenaeus and face a blunt question: if Christ does not save our flesh, what did the Cross actually redeem? We connect the Eucharist to the real human body, the promise of resurrection, and Jesus’ claim to be the Bread of Life. 
• opening prayers and a full-day offering through the Immaculate Heart of Mary 
• Saint Irenaeus on the Incarnation as real flesh and real blood 
• the Eucharist as true participation in Christ’s body and blood 
• creation’s gifts of wheat and vine becoming Eucharistic nourishment 
• Saint Paul on being members of Christ’s flesh and bones 
• burial, decay, and resurrection as the pattern of hope 
• John 6 and the promise of the Bread of Life 
If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our publications, now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Offering

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Thursday, in the third week of Easter. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen. From the Treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus, Bishop. If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood. The Eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body. There can be no blood without veins, flesh, and the rest of the human substance. And this is what the Word of God actually became. It was with his own blood that he redeemed us. As the Apostle says, in him, through his blood, we have been redeemed. Our sins have been forgiven. We are his members, and we are nourished by creation, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He declared that the chalice which comes from his creation was his blood, and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He affirmed that the bread which comes from his creation was his body, and he makes it the nourishment of our body. When the chalice we mix and the bread we bake receive the Word of God, the Eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, by which our bodies live and grow. How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord's own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God's gift of eternal life? Saint Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of man, for spirits do not have flesh and bones. He is speaking of a real human body, composed of flesh, sinews, and bones, nourished by the chalice of Christ's blood, and receiving growth from the bread which is his body. The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays, only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God, who sustains all things. The wisdom of God places these things at the service of man, and when they receive God's word, they become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way, our bodies which have been nourished by the Eucharist will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality, and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God's power is shown most perfectly in weakness. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate manna in the desert and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. Alleluia. Almighty, ever living God, let us feel your compassion more readily during these days, when by your gift we have known it more fully, so that those you have freed from the darkness of error may cling more firmly to the teachings of your truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Let us praise the Lord and give him thanks. All that I have and all that I am, I give to your hands, Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our publications, now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.