Eucharist, OUR ALL.

June 19, 2022.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – C.

Readings: Gn 14:18-20; Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Lk9:11b-17.

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” 1 Cor 11:26

A Sicilian proverb says: “Bread and wine strengthen the back.” And a Corsican proverb adds: “He who eats holy bread has to deserve it.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1324-1327), states that the Eucharist is "the source and summit" of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.

When we come to the Eucharistic banquet, we come to receive the one who for our salvation handed over his life on the Altar of the Cross. In the Eucharist, we revive Christ's sacrifice, the supreme and ultimate sacrifice that pleases God and that won for us remission of sins and justification. Therefore, we live by the Holy Eucharist. It is our all. It is Christ by our side and in us, our hope of glory.

The Church teaches us that the Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship, men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit. Thus, its other calling, as the Sacrament of Communion. For, it seals our communion with God and our communion with our brothers and sisters. In the Eucharistic Body, we become one body in Christ. We partake in the body and blood of Christ, under the species of the bread and wine to become one body in communion and united in Christ. In the Eucharist, we become what we consume. As said by St. Augustine in his Easter Sermon, 227: “If we receive the Eucharist worthily, we become what we receive.” In the first Christian community, the community of the Apostles of the Lord, the Community of the Thirteen, those men who had received and accepted Jesus in the Eucharistic Bread, along with the rest of the faithful community they represented, were actual extensions of the Body of Christ. They did not simply carry the body or even share the body; they became the true Body. For, the Eucharist unites and opens ways to reach out to others.

While celebrating the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the liturgy today gives all the meaning of the Holy Eucharist. In the first reading; through the offering of Melchizedek and his blessing to Abram, the Eucharist is foreshown as a Thanksgiving and blessing. And the role of the priest is emphasized as the one who offers the sacrifice.

In the second reading, through the narrative of St. Paul to the Corinthians, the Eucharist is presented in what it truly is, the supreme and ultimate sacrifice of Christ. And follows the mandate to make it perpetual. In this address of Paul to the Corinthians, we have all the words of the consecration that the priest uses in the Eucharistic celebration. We are told that the mass is not mimesis or mere repetition of something that was done once, but an actualization and a continuation of Christ's sacrifice for our life. At every Eucharistic celebration, in the person of the priest, though sinner, it is Jesus Christ himself who comes to offer anew his true body and blood. The priest as minister acts in Persona Christi.

And lastly, the Gospel presents the Holy Eucharist as the bread of the journey. It is the bread that sustains us so that we may not faint on our way to God’s Kingdom. We are pilgrims in the deserts of this world. Jesus offers himself to feed us and give us strength. Through the multiplication of bread and the feeding of the people in the desert, we have many great implications and lessons on the way we must see and approach the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is a place where the Lord sees our needs, shows us his compassion, and asks us to contribute to feeding the needs of others.

We read from the Gospel that, after spending the whole day teaching the people bout the Kingdom of God and healing those with infirmities, some of the disciples approached the Lord and asked him to send the people away because of being in a deserted place, where there was no food for them. The answer of the Lord to them was: “Give them some food yourselves.” The Eucharist is the place where the Lord invites us to raise our sense of concern for the need of our brothers and sisters. No matter how little could be what we have: “Five loaves and two fish.” We have to be eager to share it. For, in the Eucharistic banquet, what is shared is always enough for all. The Lord shed his Body and Blood for us all, sinners so that we too could share our love for the need of others.

May we end our meditation with this exhortation of St. Augustine quoted by Br. Julian McDonald cfc. It is a calling for us to become what we eat. He said: “Behold who you are, become what you receive!” As to say, “Look, you are the body of Christ! Do you really appreciate who you are?” Therefore, “…become what you receive! Become a Eucharistic bread! Become nourishment for everyone with whom you interact when you walk out of the church today! Be the new bread, broken and given to nourish the lives of those you will encounter today and into the future. Give selflessly of yourself and of your time and energy. Breathe life and hope into others, into your family members, your friends, your work colleagues, and the strangers you meet.” Never forget that “You are the Body of Christ” and that the Eucharist is your all and all that you are must be Eucharist.