Pope Francis on the feast of Corpus Christi spoke about how Jesus chooses fragility when he offers himself in the Eucharist, because “in the Eucharist fragility is strength.”
… the strength of the love that becomes small so it can be welcomed and not feared; the strength of the love that is broken and shared so as to nourish and give life; the strength of the love that is split apart so as to join us in unity.
There’s another strength in this fragility, the Pope said, noting how in the Gospel account of the night of the Last Supper, when Jesus gives us the Eucharist, the passage begins, “on the night he was betrayed.” This shows us the “strength to love those who make mistakes.”
He gives us the greatest gift while in his heart he feels the deepest abyss: the disciple who eats with Him, who dips the morsel in the same plate, is betraying Him. And betrayal is the worst suffering for one who loves.
And what does Jesus do? He reacts to the evil with a greater good. He responds to Judas’ ‘no’ with the ‘yes’ of mercy. He does not punish the sinner, but rather gives His life for him; He pays for him.
When we receive the Eucharist, Jesus does the same with us: he knows us; he knows we are sinners; he knows we make many mistakes, but he does not give up on joining his life to ours. He knows that we need it, because the Eucharist is not the reward of saints, but the Bread of sinners. This is why he exhorts us: “Do not be afraid! Take and eat.”
Jesus’ fragility in the Eucharist gives new meaning to our own fragilities, the Holy Father reflected.
He reminds us that in his eyes we are more precious than we think. He tells us he is pleased if we share our fragilities with him. He repeats to us that his mercy is not afraid of our miseries.
And above all he heals us with love from those fragilities that we cannot heal on our own. … The Eucharist heals because it joins with Jesus: it makes us assimilate his way of living, his ability to break himself apart and give himself to brothers and sisters, to respond to evil with good. He gives us the courage to go outside of ourselves and bend down with love toward the fragility of others. As God does with us.
