FRIDAY
The miraculous feeding of the multitude in the wilderness is an image of the nourishment of the faithful through Holy Communion—that is, through the most pure Body and most pure Blood of the Lord (Luke 9:12–17). The Lord sits apart. The people are divided into groups, while the apostles serve as intermediaries, receiving the bread and distributing it.
So it is now: the faithful are divided into groups, into individual local churches, where the Lord, invisibly present, distributes His Body and Blood through the successors of the apostles. Just as He once said to the apostles, so He now says to their successors: “You give them something to eat.”
As then, so now, the faithful remain steadfastly before the Lord in fasting, listening to His word, and prayerfully seeking healing from their sins, preparing to approach the Divine Mysteries.
Having begun with the Lord’s appearing, this mystery continues to this day and will continue until the end of the age. In the age to come, too, there will be a communion of its own kind, for the Lord has promised to give us to eat of the hidden manna and of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7, 17).
Even in the earthly Paradise, a mystical communion was established for our first parents: partaking of the tree of life. In the Old Testament Church, this was symbolized by eating the Passover lamb.
Thus, mystical communion began with the human race, has continued with it, and will continue through all eternity, in various forms but with one meaning: the closest possible communion with the Lord. For “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). It is fitting that those created in the image of God should have such communion with Him Who is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).
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