Theo Tigno

I don't remember going to Mass regularly as a family. When I was a child, I remember receiving the Eucharist when my family was in line. Nobody told me that I wasn't suppose to receive; I just did. My family made a big deal about it, asking me questions and making statements.

In the seventh grade, my parents chose to send me to Catholic School: St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Co-Cathedral. Once again, I was in line with all the students and I was before My Lord and My God. The teacher said, "the Body of Christ," and I stood there frozen. At that moment, she said, "say Amen," and I did.

This went on for a year and change before the school realized that I never received my First Communion. So, the process began. At the time I was 5'11" so as I stood in line I really stood out above the second graders. My dad was there to watch this milestone event.

In my senior year in high school, after a MBCC retreat that helped order my life to be more committed to my faith, I started going to Mass regularly. I would go with friends for the most part, but it was no longer acceptable to miss Mass on Sunday. I remember having a thought: if I close my eyes at the moment of consecration, the bread and wine will no longer be merely that. Jesus will be truly present in His Body and His Blood. It was something that helped foster a sense of awe in me.

Over the years, I have grown to love the Eucharist more and more. In doing so, I have grown to love Jesus more and more.

To say that Jesus in not present in the Eucharist is to deny and miss out on the mystery and the miracle of Christ giving Himself to us. In a world where people are stuck in consuming because they can never have enough, wouldn't the remedy be to receive Our Lord Who gives Himself freely to us?

If you are fearing that you won't have enough to pay the bills this month ... if you fear that you don't have enough to be loved ... if you fear that you don't have what it takes to make it ... know that you can receive Jesus, who is worth more than all the money in the world ... who loves you beyond any love that you can know ... who has what it takes to have dominion over all creation. He gives Himself freely.

If you are a Catholic in good standing, please come and receive. If you have fallen away from the Catholic Church, please go to confession so you can receive His grace.

If you are not Catholic, please consider this: for a long time, I thought that the bread and wine at Mass was just bread and wine. It's easy to believe that. It takes faith to believe that mere bread and wine can be transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Yet, if we know the scriptures, we know that Jesus can do great miracles, and through the consecrated hands of those who stand in the "person of Christ", He can do great miracles.

When my heart was transformed to recognizing that before me was "My Lord and My God", my understanding of what God can do was changed to it's what God chooses to do because He can do anything ... even make mere bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, My Lord and My God.