“This is my body. This is my blood.” Everything is found here.

The Eucharist reveals to us the love that goes “to the end,” a love that has no measure. Jesus Christ wants to lead us along this path. ” As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.” (Jn 6:57). In the communion of his body and blood, Christ wants to be deeply united with us. He communicates to us his Holy Spirit. As St. Ephrem the Syrian writes: “He called the bread his living body, filled it with himself and his Spirit (…). And whoever eats it with faith, eats the Fire and the Spirit (…). Take and eat of it all and eat with the same Holy Spirit. It truly is my body, and whoever eats it will live forever.” By the gift of his body and his blood, Christ makes the gift of his Spirit grow in us, which we already received during Baptism and which is offered to us as a “seal” in the sacrament of Confirmation. According to St. John Paul II, with the Eucharist we incorporate, in a certain way, the “secret” of the Resurrection, a Resurrection that begins today in the heart of the world.

Why does Jesus want to grant us this immense gift of communicating himself to us, of communicating his Spirit to us? Because he wants us to become like him. He gives us his ability to love, to offer our lives, with him, for the kingdom of God, a new world that is already in the making.

This is why the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network invites us to make ourselves available every morning for Christ’s mission (EE 91-100). Through an offering prayer, we say to Jesus: “Here I am! You can count on me!”. Offering myself every morning for the service of Christ means accepting, full of gratitude, the free gift of God’s love, it means responding to that love by putting my life at the service of the Kingdom, and doing so despite my inconsistencies, limits and weaknesses. Through such an offering, I enter into a eucharistic existence, into a life dedicated to the service of the Lord and others, to the service of the Church in the world. This offering makes me actively participate in God’s purpose of love for humanity.

Jesus lived his life as a eucharistic offering. His last meal summed up his whole life offered and given for love. This path did not lead him to a dead end, but to resurrection and life in abundance. And this life of eternal happiness He would like to give to each one of us. For this reason, he wants to draw us into his “dance of love,” even if it has to go through the Cross.

The Way of the Heart
Step Seven – Internal dynamics of the step