[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast Coach's Corner, where I break down important topics to equip you and your team for mission, in your family, in your church, and in your ministry. My name is Jim Jansen, and today I'm going to talk about how the Eucharist breaks us. Wait. I thought the Eucharist heals us, and strengthens us, and draws us into communion with the Trinity.

How does the Eucharist break us? Well, I'm glad you asked. Listen for a moment to the account of the Last Supper. In the Gospel of Luke. “After supper, Jesus took the bread and said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you. Do this in memory of me.’”

Notice the verbs. Jesus takes, Jesus blesses, Jesus breaks. And Jesus gives. It's [00:01:00] shorthand for the Paschal Mystery, right? Jesus must be broken and given to all people for all time.

You see, His ministry was limited in time and in space until His death and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, which makes His presence available to us through the Eucharist. Jesus Himself says that unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains just a single grain of wheat. But if it does die It bears much fruit.

It's the giving. So, what does that have to do with us? Well, we're a Eucharistic people, or at least we're supposed to be. We're baptized into Christ's death and resurrection. He calls us. He chooses us to be his witnesses. That's the taking. He gifts us, and he makes our work fruitful. That's the blessing.

And we wish he would stop there, but he doesn't. He purifies us of our faults and our [00:02:00] limitations. That's the breaking. So that he can send us out to heal and be purified. Well, that's the giving. See, this is the pattern we see all through the lives of the Saints. Just think for a moment with me about St. Peter. 
Jesus calls him to follow him and to become a fisher of men. That's his taking. He blesses him with a fruitful ministry and the gift of faith. He's the first one to call Jesus the Messiah. And then he's called the Rock, the first Pope. That's the blessing. But Jesus sees his pride and his weakness, and he predicts his threefold denial.

And at the moment of his denial, he looks at him with love. That's the breaking. But he doesn't stop there. He comes to him with another miraculous catch a fish. He has him renew his love for him three times. And he [00:03:00] recommissions him to lead the flock of his church. That's the giving. Now, I don't know about you, but in my own life, I tend to accept the taking and the blessing and even the giving.

But I resist the breaking. But the deeper, more authentic self-giving that I really desire only comes after the breaking. So, this Easter, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the giving of salvation to the world, let's remember that the mystery lives in the Eucharist and in our lives. Amen? Father, we ask that you would draw us ever closer to you, that your Spirit would enliven us as we allow ourselves to be conformed to your Son in his taking, in his blessing, in his breaking, and in his giving.

Amen. Amen. All right. What are your thoughts? Respond back in the chat at Equip.ArchOmaha.org. [00:04:00]