BIBLE STUDY #48
THE MOST HOLY BODY
AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
June 26, 2011

Reading 1 Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a

Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."

The Word of the Lord


Reading II 1 Cor 10:16-17

Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.

The Word of the Lord


Gospel Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

Today’s feast day, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, dates from the 13th century. It’s had many names over the course of time, but you probably remember it as Corpus Christi. It was celebrated on the Thursday after the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday). It has since been moved to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday.

This feast is largely due to Blessed Juliana of Mount Cornillon, who was born near Liege, Belgium in 1192. She was an orphan at an early age and was educated by Augustinian nuns. She later joined this order and became prioress. She had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament from an early age and always wanted a feast in its honor. She had a recurring vision since age 16: the appearance of a bright moon streaked by a dark band. In a dream, our Lord told her the black band denoted the absence of a feast for the Blessed Sacrament.

After she became prioress in 1225, she began to speak to John of Lausanne, a learned canon, and asked him to consult theologians about the feasibility of this feast. One of the men he consulted with was James Panteleon who later became Pope Urban IV who promulgated the Bull Transiturus on September 8, 1264 ordering this feast to be celebrated. Pope Clement V confirmed the Bull in 1312, and since then this has been a feast throughout the Roman Church. Blessed Juliana did not see this feast come into existence since she died in 1258. (Thanks to Butlers Lives of the Saints for this information).

Today’s feast celebrates the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. As Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist contains the “body and blood, soul and divinity” of Jesus, that Jesus is truly present in the substance of bread and wine.

The opening prayer and the alternative opening prayer give us three themes for today’s mass: 1) Christ gave us “the eucharist as the memorial of (his) suffering and death”. It’s a reminder of God’s great love, that he will never abandon us, but will always be with us to guide, direct, and inspire us along our way through life; 2) the eucharist will “help us to experience the salvation you won for us”; that by being faithful followers we will inherit eternal life; and 3) we are to evangelize: “may we offer to our brothers and sisters a life poured out in loving service.”

The first reading from Deuteronomy reminds us how God led Israel through the desert for forty years and fed them along the way. As important as the food was for them to survive physically, more important is the Word of God that sustained them spiritually. They began taking the manna for granted and complained about it’s ordinariness. Does that sound familiar? How many people go to Mass on Sunday and ‘sleep walk’ through the service, not paying attention to or hearing what is going on? How many people complain that they get nothing out of it? How can you if you don’t pay attention or participate? How can you if you’re texting (you should sit in my chair – you’d be astonished what I see every week).We are not here to entertain you. If you want to be entertained, go to the movies. We are here to help you worship God, learn more about God, and receive His presence to guide us along our journey.

God comes to us in the proclaimed Word – we believe that God is present in the proclamation and the hearing of the Word. We hope that God comes to people through a well written and pertinent homily. Our full, active, and conscious participation in singing, listening to the prayers, and praying together should be a way God comes to us. And the reception of Holy Communion is the nourishment we need to be the best disciples we can be.

Today’s Gospel is the heart of the bread of life discourse in John’s Gospel and is about faith and eucharist. Flesh and blood is a Hebrew idiom for the whole person. When we receive the eucharist, we receive the whole person of Jesus Christ: his body and blood, soul and divinity. Receiving the eucharist is a personal encounter with Jesus. Jesus is the bridge, the connection between us and the Father., through which we gain life.

As St. Paul says in the second reading, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” The eucharist brings us a share in the life of Jesus who communicates what he received from the Father, namely mission and grace,

Jesus, who gave his life for the world, ascended to the Father but left us his body and blood, soul and divinity in the sacrament of the eucharist to strengthen, nourish and guide us on our way.

However, this sacramental food that Jesus gives us does not give instant and automatic immortality, but only to those who have faith. Faith and eucharist cannot be separated. The gift of faith is given freely by God to whomever he chooses, and it is the eucharist that brings us God’s grace to grow in faith. The two can’t be separated.

The eucharist is a great gift from God and if we really appreciated its significance, wouldn’t we take every chance to encounter Jesus in the eucharist? I think if we had a better understanding of the eucharist, we would go out of our way, do whatever is necessary, to attend mass at least weekly, if not more.

The Second Vatican Council called for full, active and conscious participation in the eucharist. If we did this, we would never have to say that we can’t find God because we would be overwhelmed with all the ways God comes to us at Mass.

The eucharist is not just a symbol, it is not just a representation, but it is actually the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. I invite everyone to make a conscious decision to attend mass at least on Sundays (if not at least once during the wee). Let the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ change you, let it nurture you, let it inspire you to be saints and to share your faith with others.



Fr. Phil