How the Eucharist Changed My Life

hi my name is father that's not it's hard it's hard for me to say it's hard for me to say what my name is hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents you might know this but the eucharistic revival that was declared by the us conference of catholic bishops has basically just begun there's a series of a number of years leading up to an actual revival that's going to happen in the in the united states in local parishes in each diocese that's centered around the eucharist and not just around the eucharist around really the fact that the eucharist has the capacity has the capability has has the power to revive the hearts of every human being not just catholics or in the pews but every human being the eucharist has the capability of doing this in fact i want to talk about this because that's what it's done in my life it's without a doubt that um the eucharist has been the number one i want to say thing in my entire life i was raised catholic but i didn't really care about the catholic church i had to go to mass every sunday hated going to mass every sunday i went to mass at catholic school elementary school hated going to mass catholic elementary school everything changed for me everything changed for me when um i had a conversion moment i had an encounter with sin in my life went to confession um when i was 15 years old i wrote my book over to the bike over to the priests house it's a whole story about that um but after that i was reading a book that was lying around in my parents house and it had a little every chapter was divided up into different articles of the faith i remember coming upon the chapter about the eucharist and my mind was blown my life was changed forever i remember just thinking oh my gosh this is real that will be what we've been doing at mass when the priest says this is my body this is my blood that that bread actually becomes the body of jesus that the blood the wine actually becomes the blood of jesus christ himself it changed everything because it went from being a symbol to being real in fact i know there's so many people in fact i think it's only like 27 percent maybe of catholics who go to mass believe that jesus is truly present in the eucharist which is the most tragic statistic i think i've ever heard in my entire life because of what happened to me when i encountered the lord jesus and the eucharist the truth of this teaching i remember the first time i ever got a chance to talk in a church i was a seminarian and he said what do you want to talk about and i said the eucharist first time i ever spoke when i was after i was ordained a deacon was on the eucharist the first thing i ever got to say as a as i was ordained a priest was on the eucharist and and god willing the last thing i ever say this side of heaven is on the eucharist because jesus is truly present i remember the first time i um i realized that in matthew mark and luke it all has jesus saying very very clearly this is my body this is my blood saint paul in his letter to the corinthians he also recounts that story of the last supper of jesus saying this is my body this is my blood but it's in john's gospel chapter six where jesus explains makes really clear what he meant what he'll guess what he was going to mean when at the last supper he was going to say this is my body this is my blood what happens and being in john beginning of john chapter 6 you might know the story is that thousands of people came to see jesus to hear them preach they weren't necessarily believers in fact there were kind of three groups of people there were the crowds those people who just came out to see the entertaining wonder worker the teacher they were the disciples those are people who left their family their friends their homes their jobs they left everything to follow jesus and then there's the twelve right the original boy band the twelve apostles as jesus um feeds five 000 people that night he goes and he walks across water and meets on the other side and and those 5 000 people they're looking for food and so they go looking for jesus and he sees them coming and he says something along the lines of you're not here because you believe in me you're here because you want more food and they say basically yeah give us more food he says i will give you food if you eat it you'll live forever not never be hungry again and they stare they say for sir give us this food always and this is john chapter six he says he says this he says i'm the bread of life whoever comes to me will never hunger whoever believes in me will never thirst that's uh john chapter 6 verse 35. so they're like okay well what do you mean by that the jews in fact verse 41 says the jews murmured about him because he said on the bread that came down from heaven and they say isn't this jesus the son of joseph so jesus makes it incredibly clear in verse 51 he says i am the living bread that came down from heaven whoever eats this bread will live forever and here's where he makes it absolutely clear he says and the bread that i will give is my flesh for the life of the world he's to this point jesus has talked about yeah come to me believe in me and at this point he's saying okay that's going to look really different it's not just believing that i'm the bread from heaven not just believing that i came from god it's eat my flesh drink my blood now if you think that the people listening to him they were like nah jesus is speaking figuratively because in other places in the gospels jesus does speak figuratively he says things like i'm the gate he says i'm the good shepherd he says i'm the vine you're the branches i know at no point in those moments did anyone say jesus you're not a bush you're like you're not a shepherd you're a carpenter buddy we know about this never ever do they mistake when he's speaking figuratively for when he's speaking literally and in this moment they do not respond as if they think he's speaking figuratively in fact it goes on to say it says the jews quarreled among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat so question pop quiz does it sound to you like they think he's speaking literally or figuratively it sounds like they think he's speaking literally now this is jesus's perfect opportunity if he's not speaking literally about eating his flesh and drinking his blood he could completely clarify that whoa whoa you guys just settle down that's not what i meant what does he do the very next verse has jesus doubling down and actually quadrupling down plus one and saying he says jesus then said to them amen amen i say to you now amen amen i say to you are very truly verily unto thee i say or truly truly i say to you basically means what i'm saying after this is a solemn oath whenever jesus says amen amen so many ways you could say what he's saying is this next thing i stake my life on and jesus says 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 it goes on to say whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i'll raise him on the last day first then the third time verse 53 for my flesh is true food my blood is true drink whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains to me maintain him in the fifth time he says just as the father living father sent me and i have left because of the father so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me in response to them thinking that he's speaking literally jesus says you don't even know the half of it because we we missed this in the english translation but in the original greek translation that word to eat changes every time it begins with like if a greek word that would mean like if you if you consume me receive me then it goes to if you consume me then dine on me the last time jesus used that word to eat it's actually the word to gnaw jesus is making it very very clear that he's not speaking figuratively he's speaking literally and that the eucharist we have in our masses these eucharists we have in every single catholic church throughout the world for the last 2 000 years is not a symbol of jesus it truly is jesus body blood soul and divinity this teaching this teaching changed my life this teaching is worth living for this teaching is worth dying for this teaching is worth giving up hockey tournaments to make sure that you get to mass every single sunday this teaching has the ability and the capacity to change your life as well because the heart of this teaching is this it's the heart of christianity think about what christianity is for god so loved the world that he gave his only beloved son and what does his beloved son do for the beloved son so loved the world that he gave his very self as food he gave his very self as emmanuel god with us he has given his very self and he continues to give his very self so that you're never alone so you never walk through this world malnourished you never walk through this world in isolation or alienation but every step you take is with the emmanuel god with us every step you take is with jesus the bread of life every step you take is with the god who's given everything everything to be close to you that's the heart of the eucharist and that's the heart of christianity from all of us here to presents my name is father mike god bless [Music] you

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 113,919

Keywords: eucharist, true presence, real presence, not a symbol, is the eucharist just a symbol, eat my flesh, drink my blood, body blood soul divinity, eucharistic revival, usccb eucharist, early church fathers, eucharistic adoration, the true presence, John 6, catholic teaching on the eucharist, Fr. Mike, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, Father Mike Schmitz, Fr. Mike advice, Father Mike advice, fr. mike schmidt, holy communion

Id: _yKi2OJ7oqE

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 15 2022