Cycle A - Year II:  

22 June 2014: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 

(Liturgical color: White)

John 6:51-58

The Eucharist: Christ's Real Presence in us!

The Church celebrates today another important Feast, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or more popularly known as Corpus Christi. (Its complete Latin translation: Sollemnitas Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Christi.) 

The Gospel reading is from St. John, and the central theme of today's reading is about Jesus speaking about the Bread of Life: 

"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." (Jn 6:51)

The Holy Eucharist, or Corpus Christi is the very center and source of our Christian life. Even after his ascension, Jesus chose to remain with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Because in the Eucharist Jesus gives his body and blood to be our food through our spiritual journey.

In other words, Jesus wants us to share in his very self while in journey in this world. That is why He gave us his Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The human flesh of Jesus continues to link us and the people of every age with the timeless sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Thus, the Holy Eucharist fills us with a lasting sense of communion with Jesus Himself and with one another.

For us Catholics, the doctrine of the Real Presence asserts that in the Holy Eucharist Jesus is literally and wholly present, that means body and blood, soul and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that Jesus' presence in the Eucharist is visus, tactus, gustus. That means his presence is not imaginary in our mind. Because when we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we actually see, touch, and taste Him. He is an "edible" God, as some theologians would say.

As we receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in Holy Communion at Mass, we

come to be more and more like Him, and so partake while still here on earth of the eternal banquet of heaven. Because the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood guarantees his promise: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day." (Jn 6:54)

In practical life, we cannot completely fathom the mystery of Christ's sacramental presence in the Eucharist, so much like the teaching on the Blessed Trinity which we celebrated last Sunday. But we do believe that when we gather in Jesus' name at the Holy Eucharist, we proclaim ourselves to be truly God's people, united as one body in Christ. And this is the essence of being the New Church, as People of God on earth.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!