What the Paraclete revealed to me about the Eucharist is that it is pure Christ who is pure love. The reason Catholicism teaches such caution for the primary sacrament is that not every body is in a suitable condition to receive this level of concentrated holiness. Nearly a year of preparation is required to take communion for adults, with the requirement of baptism and confession before partaking (and for adults, sacramental marriage if applicable and confirmation).
After perceiving the profound gifts of the grace of sacramental marriage, the mercy of confession, the living waters of my (conditional) baptism and the welcome of confirmation I came to understand the Eucharist in a different way than I expected immediately after taking it.
A spiritual lacking in myself that I began to perceive during the RCIA process is a lack of love for people, in particular those who I perceived to be in ideological error as I became more “Catholic”. After absorbing Jesus’ teaching that we must care for the poor as if they are him in body, and go beyond loving neighbor but love enemies I realized that this was a quality I could not cultivate in myself without a bestowal of supernatural grace. (I had previously received supernatural graces from the Holy Spirit by way of the Blessed Mother for other needs even prior to having any knowledge of Catholicism whatsoever).
After the Easter Eucharist, my second communion, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that the love I lacked for my neighbor would be apportioned to me materially in the body of the Lord which we eat. In that moment I contemplated that the uninitiated cannot partake for their safety, which I already knew. The new insight for me was why Catholics are only given a small wafer and also why we are encouraged to take the Eucharist every day it is possible to take it.
It is also for our safety. The Lord IS Love. The more we eat of the flesh the more like him we become. Our capacity for love increases at each consumption. If we were to attempt a larger portion we too would be in mortal and spiritual danger as much as those who are not prepared to take it at all.
The Eucharist is daily supernatural bread. For myself I believe the Paraclete showed me that my growth in my capacity to love even my enemies will be tethered incrementally to my eating the supernatural bread. I did detect less contempt within myself after that second communion. It wasn’t gone, but it was less.
I don’t have the kind of freedom in life as a family man where I can manage getting to mass every day. I do wonder how greatly changed I would be if I did go.
I must write a brief addendum. Today I took my third Eucharist. It’s nearly midnight when I’m usually exhausted. Yet at this moment I’m giddy and energized. I feel the life in me.
