WONDERFUL SACRAMENT, A LIFE-GIVING BODY AND BLOOD.
June 11, 2023.
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ - Corpus Christi –
A.
"He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them
with honey from the rock." In the Holy Eucharist, our bodies are fed by
the Holy Body of Christ, and our souls are satisfied through the Blood he shed
on the Holy Cross at the Calvary. The Body and Blood of Christ are turned into
the nourishment that not only satisfies our present and continual needs but
also feeds us for the life to come.
A Japanese proverb says: “Food is delicious when one is
hungry.” And a Ghanaian proverb adds: “The goat says: "Where there is
blood, there is plenty of food."”
Today's solemnity puts a very singular accent on the
centrality of the Holy Eucharist. It is the "source and summit of the
Christian life" and faith. In the Holy Eucharist is revived the passion,
death, and resurrection of the Lord, and our expectation is raised high for his
second coming in glory.
In the Holy Eucharist, we celebrate the sacrament of the
presence of the love of Christ. It was out of love that he gave himself in
sacrifice on the Cross for us. This, John, expresses right in his narrative of
the Last Supper. "Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that
his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, having loved those who
were his in the world, loved them to the end." Jn 13:1 There, in the
episode of the washing of the feet, while at the table with his disciples, the
Lord taught them about love that expresses itself best in the service. The
Eucharist is this memorial of the supreme love and service. And it marks Jesus'
permanent presence among us, his followers.
In the Holy Eucharist, we also celebrate the Bread of
Heaven. Here is a beautiful meaning of the Body and Blood of Christ we receive
at the Altar. It goes beyond the materialistic species. It is not a piece of
bread or wafer to feed a physical need. It is a spiritual bread, a bread to
feed hungry souls.
Recently, in the Philippines, a student from Ateneo de
Manila University-Senior High School intentionally kept and not consumed the
Holy Eucharist just to post a “food review” online. In a tweet message, he made
this review: "March 17 Mass…
Design: 6/10, I like the vibe but if it was centered I think
it'd be a lot better. Crispness: 8/10, not soggy and had a satisfying crunch;
Taste: 7.5, tastes like corn flakes, Wow factor: 7/10."
Let it be clear once and for all, the Holy Eucharist is not
a wafer. It is beyond the material. Once consecrated, the bread, we believe is
no longer the material bread, but the Body of Christ, and the wine, his Blood.
The Church speaks of transubstantiation. It is about the conversion of the
substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at the
consecration, with only the appearance of bread and wine that remains.
This also opens another doctrine of faith in the Holy
Eucharist, the doctrine of "the Real Presence". The Real Presence of
Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present
in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true,
real, and substantial way. When we receive the piece of the Eucharistic Bread,
we receive fully and truly Jesus Christ who died on the Cross and is Risen.
The Catechism summed up all these points when it says: “The
mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises
the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual
life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most blessed
sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly,
really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called 'real'
- by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they
could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that
is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes
himself wholly and entirely present."” CCC 1374
Lastly, not as repetition, but we celebrate the Holy
Eucharist as the Sacrament of Love. In the Eucharist, we are given the
sacramental sign of God's love. There, we see the priority of love in a
graduating way. Firstly, the Father’s love for the Son. It was the reason for
the Lord's Incarnation. Secondly, the Son's love for the believers that we are,
this is the reason for his salvific passion and death. And thirdly, the love of
believers for each other, that is the key to our redemption.
St. John explains, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus
Christ laid down his life for us” (1Jn. 3:16) When instituting the Eucharist,
the Lord says, “This is my body”, he gives the true and unique meaning of love
as self-offering. As St. Thomas Aquinas put it, “The Eucharist is the Sacrament
of Love; It signifies love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation
of the whole spiritual life.”
Celebrating this solemnity, we are urged to transform our
vision of the Holy Eucharist. For in it, God feeds our daily needs. We all
partake of a unique bread to become one body, calling for communion, community,
and unity. And we eat the only bread that can give us a life that neither the
world, no food, no material things can provide. As the Lord says in the Gospel,
"I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats
this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for
the life of the world."
May we build an Eucharist Heart and strengthen our faith in Jesus' real presence in the Holy Eucharist as a wonderful Sacrament and a life-giving body and blood. Together, let us sing this Eucharistic hymn: “Here he is the Lamb so sweet. The true bread of the Angels. He comes down from heaven for us. Let us all worship him.”
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