Aren't we changed too? (Fr. Michael Newman, O.S.F.S)

It is true, Lord, that I held you in my hands when I spoke the words:
'This is my Body.’ Yes, I believe it, I feel it, and I see it.
Yes, it is you: the charm of the child in the crib,
the all embracing wisdom of the Messiah,
the total submission of the Lord on the cross,
the splendor of the Son at the right hand of the Father;
it is all that, that I find before my eyes,
in my hands and very close to my heart.
Jesus, be to me a Savior! 

--Fr. Louis Brisson 

    Today on Holy Thursday, we remember Jesus’s great gift of the Eucharist, His Body and Blood for our salvation. My favorite Eucharist story happened here at Holy Family Parish last summer.

   Each summer our parish hosts “Mass on the Grass” where I go around and say Mass at various parishioner’s homes. Many people (usually between 60-80) gather for Mass and then a meal after. 

    Last summer I was going over to Juanita and Alfredo's house for Mass. And, as I was setting up for Mass, I realized that I had forgotten my chalice. There were so many people that my car got boxed in and I couldn’t get out. So I went up to Juanita and told that I needed a huge favor. I needed a cup from her kitchen to stand in as the chalice for this Mass. I also explained to her that once this cup held the Blood of Christ, it could never be used for anything else again; in fact, I would be taking the cup with me to preserve it and eventually bury it after the Mass. 

   Juanita nodded and I followed her into her kitchen. She opened the cupboard and in the back was one wine glass. She said that her family shared this one wineglass when they celebrated important milestones in their lives: like the engagement of their daughter, her son graduating from college. She said to me, “This is the nicest cup we have. Use this,” and she pressed it into my hands. 

   I felt awkward, but I took the glass with me. A half hour later, that glass became a chalice when it held the Blood of Christ which was then distributed to everyone at Mass on the Grass. As I held the chalice up, I looked over at Juanita and Alfredo. They were kneeling in the grass, smiling because their glass, the most precious glass they ever owned, now held the Blood of Christ. I started to tear up as we distributed the Eucharist to everyone gathered there. 

   This was my close moment — when God’s presence was palpable and I understood the Eucharist in a new way. 

Because when that ordinary glass cup
received the Blood of Christ,
it was changed,
transformed into a new thing, a chalice,
and it can never go back to being an ordinary “cup” again. 

If the Eucharist is so powerful that it changes ordinary vessels
into sacred vessels that can only be used
to hold Christ’s Body and Blood,
shouldn’t that same thing happen to us 

each time we receive the Eucharist?

When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ,
aren’t we changed into a new thing too? 

   I still have that glass chalice in my office in a sacred place and I plan to bury it soon.  But for now it stands there as a reminder of the power of Jesus: that Alfredo and Juanita gave me the most precious cup they owned and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that cup held the Blood of Christ. In like manner, when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ we are changed, and like the vessels themselves we ought not remain the same; instead may we become what we receive: Christ’s Body and Blood in communion with Him and each other for the salvation of the world. 

   May God be praised! 

 --Fr. Michael Newman, O.S.F.S.,

Holy Family Parish, Adrian, Michigan

Facebook, April 17, 2025

Source of story and images: https://www.facebook.com/michael.newman.7902564