christ – Upper Room Media Blogs

Preparing our Hearts

Preparing our Hearts

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous

Passage Luke 8:4-8

This Gospel of the sower is a well-known parable recounted numerous times throughout the year. However, there is something special that is mentioned right at the beginning of the parable which is often overlooked.

“And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city,” Luke 8:4

He was not speaking to the disciples or a specific selection of people, He was speaking to multitudes, to thousands. These words which He spoke reached every single one of them. Similarly, Christ’s words are for every single on of us 2,000 years later. By speaking to these multitudes, He teaches us that this is not some parable, not some story aimed at a different audience. We are the ground, and His words are for us who listen to His word.

“When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”” Luke 8:8

Often, we find ourselves hearing Christ’s words, but how often do we listen to His word. How many times have we heard His Gospel and then forgotten about it, or zone out? The multitudes suffered from this, with Christ’s words entering one ear and leaving through the other. His words were not entering their hearts. Christ is trying to plant His word in us, but it is up to us whether we choose to truly listen to His word or to reject it and let it fall away, just like the seed that fell on the pathway.

When we read over this Gospel, we may tend to believe that the sower is the scripture or the Bible or a sermon we hear. But it is much more than this. The sower represents the very person of Christ. He sows Himself in us. No matter what ground we are, whatever state we are in, He still plants Himself unconditionally. Thus, it is up to us to receive him.

We all strive to be like the good ground, bearing fruit tenfold, twenty-fold or even a hundred-fold. We hope that our hearts will be ready to receive Christ joyfully. But how many of us till our grounds. How much of our daily effort goes towards preparing our ground, our hearts so that we can receive His blessing. Christ’s will for us is not a passive one where we simply hope that we can attain eternity with Him. Our faith is a proactive faith whereby we are called to live out His word each day, growing closer to Him each day and preparing our hearts to accept Him each day we awake. If we seek to be like the good ground, we must prepare each day to accept Him into our hearts. Only then can we be saved.

Cracked Hearts and Open Arms

Cracked Hearts and Open Arms

By Bethany Kaldas

‘But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.’
Luke 6:35-36

One of the hardest things in life is to love and not be loved in return—or perhaps even worse, to love and be mistreated in return. I’m not mainly speaking in a romantic sense (in fact, to take this in a romantic sense may be quite unwise)—this goes far deeper than that. A parent who does everything he can to show love to his child and yet gets nothing but angst and rebellion and spite in return goes through just as much, if not more, agony as the unrequited lover. A servant may feel the darkest despair when she pours her whole heart and soul out to reach the young girl who is straying from Christ, only to have the girl fight back like she’s the enemy. You may do everything you can to hold on to a dear friend, but sometimes they still walk away.

I’ve heard it said occasionally, within the Church, that it is better to guard your heart against the world, not to love anyone or anything too much, because nothing here lasts. There is some truth to that—though, perhaps, not the way it first seems. But you can see why the idea seems to make sense, right? People quarrel, they leave, they change from being caring to being cold, they can turn against you on the slightest provocation. Even if none of this happens, everyone dies eventually. Even pets, even places, even inanimate objects are unlikely to outlast your affections. You’ll be burned in the end.

The truth is, no matter how much effort you put into a relationship—of any kind—and even if you do everything right, there is no such thing as a safe love. There is a way in which pain and love are inseparable. You must have open arms to love, and it is when your arms are open that you are at your most vulnerable.

So why go through with it? If open arms mean broken hearts, then wouldn’t it be better to always keep your guards up? Why would you ever let anyone in? Who could possibly be worth it?

‘There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.’
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

If you live in constant fear of death, you will never live at all. If you only love when you are certain your heart will not be wounded, you will never love at all. Love of any kind is the inevitable risk of being broken apart.

‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces muchgrain.’
John 12:24

A grain doesn’t just need to be buried to live—it also needs to be cracked open. You can’t walk out of a tomb before the stone has been rolled away, no matter how exhausting and painful that process is, no matter how much the sunlight burns your eyes. And it will burn. Love is a leap. Love is a risk.

‘The leap of faith always means loving without expecting to be loved in return, giving without wanting to receive, inviting without hoping to be invited, holding without asking to be held. And every time I make a little leap, I catch a glimpse of the One who runs out to me and invites me into his joy, the joy in which I can find not only myself, but also my brothers and sisters. Thus the disciplines of trust and gratitude reveal the God who searches for me, burning with desire to take away all my resentments and complaints and to let me sit at his side at the heavenly banquet.’
Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son

Love is not safe. Your heart will be broken. But there is One who broke His heart for you first. A Love that shone so bright, not from the safety of a throne as you know it, but hung in agony from a cross, pierced by nails and thorns. His heart broke so that all the cracks in yours, so small by comparison, can shine with the light of His.

Love’s as hard as nails,
Love is nails:
Blunt, thick, hammered through
The medial nerves of One Who, having made us,
Knew The thing He had done,
Seeing what all that is
Our cross, and His
C. S. Lewis, Love’s Warm as Tears

Believe it or not (and people are very unlikely to ever say this to you out loud in actual words) but everyone—even the most stubborn, arrogant, irritating people you know—has a cracked heart. Everyone wants to be loved, even if they don’t always act like they care. Love is never wasted, but they may sting you. When they see the cracks in your heart they might strike. After all, that is what we did to Him.

When you open your heart, when you love knowing it might break you, that is when you see Him. That is when you become like Him. He died, not that you might remain safe in the tomb, but that you might meet Him beyond it. There’s no light in that tomb, no breath, no life. Life awaits you beyond the walls you’ve put around your heart. He awaits you still. For all the cracks you’ve put in His heart, all the nails in His hands, still He awaits you with arms open.

God has given you a heart, and although cracks run through it, however deep, however wide, He has filled it with His love. Let that love shine through the fractures in your own heart to theirs. Show them what it means to be loved regardless. He’s shown you that you’re worth it—take that risk. Show them they are too.

‘We love Him because He first loved us.’
1 John 4:19

Society’s Will or God’s Will

Society’s Will or God’s wills

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous

Passage Mark 3:22-35

In this Gospel, we read about Christ’s rebuttal against the scribes who claimed He was Beelzebub. This was due to Christ making himself known. After all, who is this carpenter who claims to be the Son of God. We read that even his family felt emotions such as embarrassment, shame, dishonour. Similarly, are we, being sons and daughters of God, ashamed or embarrassed to call God our Father? Are we embarrassed to go out and fast? Are we embarrassed that each Sunday we go out to church whereas the rest of the world sleeps in?

Embarrassment may also come in the form of our morals. The secular world says that some things are okay whereas the Church explicitly tells us that it is not. Thus, we encounter this tension between the secularly accepted views and morals and the morals of the Church. Do I live according to society’s will or God’s will? Embarrassment may also be found in our ritualistic worship or that we even believe in a God to begin with.

Perhaps the biggest embarrassment is that we are unable to live according to our own will. We submit to God’s will and thus give up our freedom. Nowadays, freedom and rights are some of the most important values of society and often we are told that no one should be able to take these away from us. My family cannot tell me how to live. God cannot tell me how to live. However, perhaps it is the other way around. Perhaps, freedom is found in Christ, and lost when we reject him.

Often, we pray to see God or to encounter him,

“Just reveal yourself once in a dream and I will never commit this sin again.”

“Just give me a sign that this is the right path for me.”

“Just provide me with this promotion or job and I will serve you every day.”

However, if we are embarrassed to follow in His path or His teachings, how can we see Christ who is a stranger to us. How can we encounter Him if even his own family felt ashamed of His teachings? If we are unwilling to become the outcasts, to act abnormally to society, to follow His will instead of our own; If we are unable to do all these, then how can we possibly encounter Him. Instead, we should find joy and confidence in His word, knowing that He is indeed the Son of God.

Strength in Christ

Strength in Christ

By Anthony Tawadros

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” – Philippians 4:13

I remember reciting this verse by heart. My mom always reminded me to recite that verse whenever I was feeling sad or alone, feeling anxious or desperate, or in any situation in which I forgot my identity in Christ. So what does it actually mean? What does it actually mean, that in any situation, Christ will strengthen me?

Since the perfect Being, had assumed imperfection on our behalf, He then had perfected imperfection. Simply put, Christ being God, strengthened our human nature through His incarnation. But He simply didn’t strengthen it. He perfected it, blessed it, and sanctified our human nature. God became man, that man may become like God. And as man, Christ had endured so many hardships that we are also bound, or if not already had encountered. Christ was mad when people were selling and stealing things at the place of worship; in His Father’s house.

Christ had felt sorrow when his beloved Lazurus had died. Christ had felt deceived when He had witnessed Judas betraying Him for an easy thirty pieces of silver. Christ felt anxious and scared at the cup that He would soon be bearing, to the point that He had sweat blood. Christ felt abandoned and sad when His life-long disciples had left Him in the night of Gethsemane, when

He was being arrested. And Christ had felt rejected when Peter, His most outspoken disciple had once swore to die for him, but instead denied Him; not once, or twice, but three times. Christ had felt pain and humiliation when He was beaten, mocked, nailed, and stabbed. Christ had went through it all. But the God who had endured these things, emerged victorious in them, because He is God.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me , means that I can overcome any obstacle, or all things , because Christ endured all things , and became victorious in them.

Whenever I feel alone, anxious, broken, betrayed, scared, or angry, or even faced with the very fear of death, I am reminded that Christ too went through these emotional and physical sufferings. So, I too can be victorious in them, because Christ overcame these things and was victorious in them.

Because He first Loved Us

Because He first Loved Us

By Pola Fanous

We love, because He first loved us. And how could it be any other way? In John 5:19, Jesus makes it clear that: “… the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do.” It is only in imitation of Christ that we are able to love at all. Just as it is only by following Him to Golgotha, that we rise into Paradise with Him; only by sharing in His crucifixion, that we share in His resurrection. As spiritual beings, we know that love is the most natural thing on earth and in heaven. When we reject our divinity, we banish ourselves from the paradise of joy and are limited to primitive modes of being. We become mere self-centred animals to whom love is foolish and selfishness is wisdom. The charity at the heart of Agape love goes against the ethic of self-preservation in evolutionary theory. How fortunate we are, then, to have the wondrous example of Christ to protect us from selfishness:

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
John 13:14-15

As Christ loves and protects His Church – evermore – so too does a godly husband love his wife! Without our God and his eternal and enduring example, how could we begin to stand a chance? St John Chrysostom, drawing on Christ’s example, advises husbands on how to address their brides:

“I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us… I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”
St John Chrysostom, 20th Homily on Ephesians

In reading these words, my heart not only rejoices, but I marvel at the enormity of our God who is love in all its forms, including Eros! In Song of Songs, we see Christ’s intimacy with the Church demonstrated in erotic poetry so beautiful it eclipses the thousands of love poems I’ve read: “

Your navel is like an elaborate bowl… Your two breasts are like two fawns, the twins of a gazelle… And the fragrance of your nose like apples… Set me as a seal upon your heart.
Song of Songs 7-8

We must not forget that not only is Christ our example, He is Love incarnate. We cannot love without knowing love, and so, we cannot love without knowing God;

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8

Indeed, St Simeon the New Theologian writes of the Holy Spirit as the embodiment of God’s love – moving us, stirring us and inspiring us:

O Holy Love, he who knows you not has never tasted the sweetness of your mercies which only living experience can give us. But he who has known you, or who has been known by you, can never have even the smallest doubt. For you are the fulfilment of the law, you who fills, burns, inflames, embraces my heart with a measureless love. You are the teacher of the prophets, the offspring of the apostles, the strength of the martyrs, the inspiration of the fathers and masters, the perfecting of all the saints. Only you, O Love, prepare even me for the true service of God”
Saint Simeon the New Theologian, 11th c, Homily 53

Here, St Simeon speaks of Phila – the form of love most commonly called friendship. This too, must first be shared between man and God – for what greater friend have we than the King of Kings? In Exodus, God spoke to Moses like a man speaks to a friend; in James, God calls Abraham his friend. In John, God goes one step further, revealing that we who do his will are counted as his friends:

“You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my father, I have made known to you.”
John 15:14-15

It is clear then, that love as Agape, love as Eros and love as Phila – are all spiritual forms of love, all beautiful, all sanctified, all demonstrated and gifted to us by our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. However, we must also remember one final form of love – love as divine and perfect grace! We are only alive today because of God’s perfect sacrifice on the cross, his saving love towards us.

In short, we love because He first loved us: on every level, in every form, in every way. Glory be to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords: our rescue, our hope, our example and always – Our Love.

Celebration of Service

Celebration of Service

Adapted from a sermon by Michael Iskander

Nowadays, we put so much effort into our jobs, our social life, our hobbies, our everyday mundane tasks. These may provide us with some sort of fulfilment or joy temporarily, however, once we have achieved that goal, that friendship, received that new promotion, we are constantly faced with the same question.

What next?

What do we do now, what is there to do, what else can give me a sense of fulfilment. This too can be said when it comes to death. We may grow old and pass away, but then what next? What happens afterwards?

The feast of the apostles has just passed, a day full of celebration and joy. But what exactly is being celebrated? This is the day we commemorate the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul. Yet within the Church we sing joyful praises, there is a lively and jubilant aroma that fills the Church. Usually we associate death with mourning and despair. However, as Christians, we should in fact join the Church in these celebrations, since we know that due to Christ’s blood, we have so much more once we pass away.

We also celebrate this day as the apostles are the spreaders of the Gospel. They have seen Christ’s teachings and continued to preach them to both Jews and Gentiles to allow for our Church to still be standing today, and hence we celebrate them. Similarly, we also bear the same responsibility as them to ensure that we keep true to the doctrine of the Church to ensure Her longevity till His Second Coming.

Therefore, since we celebrate the apostles, we must also aim to serve they did to others. We are not only called to serve Christ, but to serve others also. We read in Matthew 25 that,

“Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Matthew 25:40

Thus, in order to truly serve Christ, we must first serve those of the world, just as the apostles whom we celebrate, spreading the good news that is Christ. If we truly desire genuine fulfilment in our everyday lives, service is the only answer.

Our Father

Our Father

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous

In the Gospel, there are various accounts where Jesus teaches us how to pray. Often, we may find ourselves asking ourselves, “How do we pray?”. Thus, it is important for us to listen closely to the words which Christ provides us with within the Gospels. He says,

“When you pray, say Our Father,” (Luke 11:2)

He doesn’t give us prerequisites or strict instruction. We probably don’t notice how unusual that language is since we are so used to it. We hear it because we recite this prayer almost if not daily. During Christ’s time, to call God ‘Father’ was unusual.

In the Jewish praise, you will often hear them say, Lord God, creator of Heaven, and that’s how it would begin it. Very rarely would you see somebody called God, ‘Father.’ People were often excommunicated for claiming to call God ‘Father’, due to the audacity to act as though they were a son or daughter of God.

Not only does Christ urge us to call God Our Father, but He himself also uses the title when He prays.

It is unusual. Not only is He claiming to be the Son of God, but he also invites us to partake in this sonship, urging us to approach God as our Father too.

One of the early Church Fathers in early fifth or fourth century Alexandria says,

“He gives His own glory to us.”

He raises slaves to the dignity of freedom. He rescues us from the state of slavery, giving us by His grace what we did not possess by nature, and permits us to call God our Father as being admitted to the ranks of sons and daughters.

Can any of us say that we are truly free. But rather, we are all enslaved to something. All of us are beneath where we should be. All of us find that we do not have freedom or certain control, whether it will be given to anger, words that we cannot stop saying, cigarettes, alcohol shopping, whatever it may be, we’re all enslaved to something attention. However, Christ elevates us back to where we were supposed to be, sons and daughters.

Therefore, since we are all children of God, thus we must also be brothers and sisters to one another. We are all part of the same family raised under our Father’s wing. As He will care for us, so should we take care of our fellow brother or sister.

Many Mansions

Many Mansions

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Samuel Fanous

The Gospel provides us with a lovely image of death. Christ says “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” This imagery is sometimes lost because he said this to poor fisherman, rather than the rich. Thus, it was something glorious for the people present. He gave them the perfect image of death. He said that everything that you longed for in life will be received at death. You will have it in the Father’s kingdom.

If we reflect on Christ’s references to death, most of them are joyful and positive. Very few are negative. The Kingdom of Heaven will be a glorious place. Christ attempts to inform the people that the Kingdom of God is a happy experience.

When people think about John’s Revelation, people think of the apocalypse and horror. But that in fact was not John’s focus. Rather, he aimed to provide a message of comfort to those who were in persecution. Upon close analysis, although it has scary imagery and judgements towards Rome and evildoers, it was a message of comfort to the believers.

“God will wipe away every tear.”

These are all messages of comfort. The messages of fear are those opposed to God. They are told to be fearful, the persecutors, the Jews. To His own people, he provides a message of hope, that there will be many mansions and will live comfort. Christ was portraying the perfect image for the people present during His sermon.

However, nowadays there is a changed perception towards death. One filled with fear and anxiety. Perhaps this is due to the ambiguity surrounding death. The unbelievers fear this greatly as they have no clue what to expect. What will happen after death? Where do we go? Thus, they choose to spend life not thinking about death, to focus on the present and ignore what is to inevitably come. However, we should not follow in this train of thought. We should be prepared. We must think of death often to come to the realisation that we should not fear death. What are we truly afraid of? Death is the gateway to Heaven. Why should we fear entering Christ’s Kingdom?

The day is coming for all of us. No one is exempt from encountering death. No matter a day from now or 50 years from now, it will come. To encounter that day in tranquillity and joy, we must change how we live today. If today was your last day on earth, what would you do? You must continually prepare yourself. That day will come, but will you be prepared?

? Full sermon ?

The Proposal of Christ

The Proposal of Christ

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily

One of the most unforgettable days in someone’s life is the day they either proposed or were proposed to. Whether good or bad, yes or no, it’s still unforgettable. The words used on the day are ingrained in your mind.

The reason why it is such a significant day is that it is a transitionary point in your life. It marks the official transition from a relationship heading preparation for a wedding and on to marriage.

On that day, there is so much love, so much hope for what it will become, and so much faith in each other.

The Jews had a different process, they didn’t get down on one knee. The process would begin when the man would bring a gift to the girl which would mark the covenant. If she accepted the gift, it was done. He then says, “I’m going to go prepare a place for you. When it’s ready I will come back and take you with me to that place and we will be there together.”

After he said this, he would leave to build an extension to his father’s house for him and his new bride. This would take approximately one year to prepare and build. The father would then determine the right time and he would go in a procession to bring his bride back to his father’s home.

What we read in the gospel of John in the last supper discourse sounds, Christ frames His departure in very similar fashion;

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know” – John 14:2-3.

In essence, this was a Jewish proposal – a transition point in the relationship of Christ and the disciples. This was now heading toward a marriage.

He stays on earth for 40 days after His resurrection, until the Ascension. The ascension we celebrate this coming week. The Ascension is major event that gets overlooked midweek, between the Resurrection and the Pentecost.

Why did Christ stay for 40 days? Why this particular number of days, why couldn’t He remain of Earth forever? If you read through scripture, every time the number 40 is used, it is a transitionary moment.

During the time of Noah, they remained in the Arc for 40 days and 40 nights. When Moses takes the Israelites out of Egypt, they wonder in the desert for 40 years searching for the Promised Land. A transitionary point in the history of Israel from being in the bondage of slavery to being heirs of God’s people in their own land.

Before Jesus begins His ministry, He spends 40 days and 40 nights in the desert where He was tempted by the devil. A transitionary point from which He would begin His public ministry and miracles.

Here, we have the Ascension that takes place 40 days after the Crucifixion. This was a transitionary moment for the disciples. From fear to courage, from not understanding who Christ was or what He was saying to being able to fully comprehend His divinity and preparing for the marriage feast that was to come.

After His ascension, we read, “And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52)

This is a strange reaction to a loved one leaving. If you really loved someone, you would not be joyful at their departure. Why were the disciples so joyful at the ascension of Christ? Because the proposal is now coming into effect.

They remembered the words of Christ, I will go to prepare a place and when it’s ready, I will take you with Me.

They were joyful to see Him leave so that when He returned, they would be going with Him. Just like the bride is joyful when her groom leaves to prepare a place for her, the disciples can say goodbye to Christ with joy. It was joy in anticipation of what is to come. They spend the next nine days waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. How did they spend those nine days?

“These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” – Acts 1:14

In prayer and supplication, they waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

We today, hear these words of Christ as though Christ is on one knee proposing to you, and saying, “I am going to My Father house to prepare a place for you and then I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, you may be also.”

On the day of Ascension, we celebrate the day He leaves to prepare that place as a transitionary moment in our lives, looking toward eternity. We ought to return to our lives with joy for we wait in hope of His return when we will be with Him. We live joyful in prayer, preparing for wedding that is to come. We live in this hope, in this faith, and in this love.

? Full sermon ?

Hunger for Him

Hunger for Him

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous

In this gospel, the church chooses for us a passage where Christ says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6: 35

Then as it continues in the Gospel, we hear that Christ says to them that “My life is in you.”

“If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” John 6: 51

I’ve always found it fascinating that this gospel is read on the second Sunday of the Holy 50 days of resurrection.After Easter, after the feast of the resurrection, we celebrate 50 days of joy. In these 50 days of joy, the Church selects for us Gospels that generally revolve around the theme of ‘Christ like life’, where He says, “I am the door, I am the bread of life, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, I am the light of the world.”

I’ve always found it fascinating that in this particular Gospel, “I am the bread of life,” is the second Gospel. It’s as though the church is reminding us of two things.

Christ gave Himself for the life of the world. We should never forget, never dissociate. Never take that dimension away from the resurrection. Secondly, although He was crucified and resurrected, He is always with us through His body in His blood on the Altar. Although He has, in a sense, left this world, He’s never left this world even unto the end of the ages. He’s with us in His present through His body and blood on the Altar.

So these two things that Christ gave Himself for the life of the world, and that yet He remains with us through His Body and Blood, I think these are the reasons why the Church selects this Gospel, that He is the bread of life, that whoever feeds on, whoever has His life in will be transformed by the life.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was the bishop of Antioch, they led him in a procession before they killed him. on his way to be martyred, in the second century, wrote to the church in Rome.

He wrote to the Romans and said this:

“Do not talk about Jesus Christ while you desire the world. Do not let envy dwell among you. I take no pleasure in corruptible food or the pleasures of this life. I want the bread of God which is the flesh of Christ, who is at the seat of David. And for drink, I want His blood, which is incorruptible love.”

The early church knew deeply that they shared in the life of Christ, that He was in them. This happened and ultimately, when they partook in the Eucharist, when they shared His Body and Blood. In the Eucharist, they no longer had a physical hunger that was to be satisfied, but rather, Christ’s life was in them, transforming them.

St Cyril of Alexandria commenting on this passage in John 6 says: “in effect, Jesus is saying, I am the bread of life, not bodily bread, which merely eliminates the physical suffering brought on by hunger, but rather that bread that refashions the entire living being to eternal life. The human being who had been created for eternal life is now given power over death. The Eucharist, the presence of Christ in the body in blood on the altar, is not there to satisfy our physical hunger. It’s there to refashion us, to transform us, to remake us, so that we would be worthy of eternal life. So that we could be a dwelling place for Christ.”

The early church held on to this belief with a radical understanding that they couldn’t live without the body and the blood of Christ, that He was present among them in His body in His blood. Yet, if you observe even in St John’s Gospel, not all who heard Christ’s words hunger for that bread. Not all who heard that word hungered for Him. In fact, if you observe it says, even many of his disciples were disturbed, by what He was saying. How could somebody eat His flesh and drink his blood? How could His life be communicated in His flesh in his blood? Some were so disturbed that Christ even said to them, this is a hard thing who can understand it. He looked at His own disciples, as many people started to leave Him and said to them, “Do you also want to go away?”

Even His own disciples didn’t hunger. Some of his disciples did not hunger for Christ. St. Augustine says, “they were far from being fit for that heavenly bread, and they didn’t know how to hunger for it.” For this bread requires the hunger of the inner person. They didn’t hunger for him. They didn’t hunger for His presence.

This is what all of us, especially now, during this current crisis, need to have very firmly in our hearts. Do we hunger for the presence of Christ? Everyone across this Earth now is to a certain extent separated from the Altar. Separated from the Eucharist. Yet the Eucharist, the presence of Christ, His Body and Blood, needs now to be yearned for more than anything else. We need to hunger for it. It’s not a ritual. It’s not a remembrance. It’s where we stand face-to-face to Christ in His presence. Even though me may now only be able to commune infrequently, let this yearning, this hungering that is growing within us become a joyful experience of yearning for Christ.

It is not something we should be sad about. It is something we should be joyful about, because we know we will eventually be reunited. Let our desires of our heart grow, knowing that He never leaves us, but that we need to learn to hunger for Him.