Bread and Wine

One

Cana and the Multiplication of the Loaves

Before Jesus used bread and wine to make the Eucharist, He used bread and wine to do miracles so those around Him could eat and drink their fill.

At the Wedding of Cana the miracle of turning water into wine was a miracle of transformation. He took one thing and turned it into another, changing the character of what it was.

The miracles of the feeding of the multitudes, the miracles involving bread, were miracles of multiplication. He took one thing, and multiplied it indefinitely until everyone had been given a chance to be satisfied.

These are the miracles He continues to work in the Church today, both in the Eucharist and in the lives of His believers.

Two

The Eucharist

In the Eucharist, which also makes use of bread and wine, Jesus performs His supreme miracle of transformation and multiplication. Through the priest, Jesus turns one thing into another, He turns bread and wine into His own body and blood, soul and divinity. This transformation, which we call, “transubstantiation,” was prefigured at Cana.

At Cana, Jesus proved in advance that He has the power to do what He does at every Mass, turn one thing into something else.

The Eucharist also involves a miracle of multiplication. Jesus only has one physical body, but in the Eucharist that one physical body is present in every crumb of every host, in every drop in the chalice, and in every Mass and tabernacle in the world. The mystery of Jesus’s complete presence in every particle of the Eucharist is called, “concomitance,” and it was prefigured at the feeding of the crowds.

Jesus’ physical presence is multiplied just like the loaves were in order that every believer can be filled with Jesus’ entire Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity so that we can be transformed into Whom we consume!

Three

Spiritual Transformation

The Lord, therefore, is capable of miracles of transformation, of turning one thing into another. That, of course, is good news to you and me because we need to be transformed. We need to be transformed from weak sinners who think only of ourselves into heroes of charity just like He turned the confused and frightened apostles into fearless proclaimers of the truth.

We also need to have faith that Christ can transform the ugly consequences of our mistakes and sin into something beautiful and good. Just like He turned the horror of Calvary into the salvation of the world, His providence can salvage the wreckage of our faults and repurpose it to serve some noble end.

God works all things for good for those who love Him. 

Four

Multiplication

Christ is also capable of miracles of multiplication. He can take our prayers, which are so distracted and petty. He can take our good deeds, which are so compromised in their motivations. He can take our sacrifices, which are so ungenerous and grudging. He can take our witness to the faith, which is so hesitant and poorly expressed, He can take all that and give it more value than we could ever imagine. He can take those prayers and those good deeds and those sacrifices and those moments of witness, and he can multiply their supernatural ramifications beyond what we could ever imagine. 

So offer up the little you have by the morning offering, “Father, I give you my prayer, work, joy and suffering of this day, and I unite it to the sacrifice of Your Son made present in the Mass. And I offer it for (name your intentions).”

Jesus gathers your little offering to himself and unites it to his so that yours takes on infinite value. 

Five

Offering the Little you have

It’s a remarkable thing that Jesus doesn’t do His miracles of transformation or multiplication without some human contribution, no matter how tiny.

Before His miracle of wine, He waited for others to bring Him the water. Before He fed the crowds, He waited for someone to bring him a couple of loaves.

So, we need to make our tiny contribution. We need to bring Jesus our brokenness to transform. And we know He can transform our brokenness. We’ve seen Him transform acts of lust into the most incredibly beautiful children or acts of vanity and ambition into works that really benefit others. Many of us have seen Him transform a totally self-destructive way of life into a life of repentance and peace. Now we offer Him ourselves, our pathetic little selves, and ask Him to transform us into saints.

We also bring Jesus our little contributions, our small efforts to do the right thing, so that He can multiply them, make something worthwhile out of them. And we have faith that He can do that. And that He will.