Many of you have heard me tell of my family’s experience of this kind of Eucharistic vision on Navajoland, where we were assisting with COVID relief and building community gardens. You’ve heard me tell of how, when my sister, Cornelia, risks her own health and safety to deliver fresh produce, eggs, and milk to sheltering families, she is quite literally handing over the bread of heaven. Or how, when my brother, Leon, hauls barrels of water to remote communities with no access to running water, he is literally offering up the cup of salvation. Or as my shimá, Paula, and her husband Hank chop and deliver loads of firewood to sheltering elders, they are literally sharing the light of Christ that keeps the frigid night winds at bay and preserves life. Theirs is a vision of Eucharist that shapes us to live life in radical relationship, as a sacrifice for others. This is, I think, what Augustine meant when he wrote that, if we receive the Eucharist as it has been given to us, we “become what we receive,” the bread of heaven broken for the life of the world. More
