Sunday, June 14, 2020 is the eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: "The Lord fed his people with the finest wheat and honey; their hunger was satisfied. Amen."
History tells us that this special feast of the Body and Blood of Christ originated in the 12th century AD and was introduced into the calendar of the Universal Church in 1264. Saint Thomas Aquinas is said to have written the prayers and hymns that go with this feast.
It was introduced into the Church because the people of the Middle Ages felt they were not worthy to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in communion, preferring instead to look at the Blessed Sacrament from a distance and be blessed by it. This led to the introduction of the elevation of the bread and the cup during Mass, and ultimately to public displays such as the popular Benediction ritual. Later Church reforms, particularly Vatican II, renewed the liturgy and made it possible for parishioners to not only look at the Blessed Sacrament and be blessed by it, but also to “take it and eat” when they participate in the Holy Mass.
The most obvious religious tradition associated with this feast is the Corpus Christi Procession, which includes the carrying of the Blessed Sacrament, visible in a vessel called the monstrance, which comes from the Latin word monstrare, meaning “to show”, “to display.” The procession usually include stops at outdoor altars, called stations, where the congregation says prayers, sing songs and are then blessed with the Sacrament.
What is the purpose of this feast of the Eucharist? It is an opportunity for us to seek a better understanding of the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, which Saint Ignatius of Antioch once called “the medicine of immortality”. Saint Paul warns the Corinthians against receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in an unworthy state: “It follows that if anyone eats the Lord’s bread or drinks from his cup in a way that dishonours him, he is guilty of sin against the Lord’s body and blood. .. For if he does not recognise the meaning of the Lord’s body when he eats the bread and drinks from the cup, he brings judgement on himself as he eats and drinks. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and several have died.” 1 Cor. 11: 27-30.
Under normal circumstances, we would have been marching in large processions through our neighbourhoods behind the Blessed Sacrament. The Covid-19 pandemic has rendered it almost impossible for this feast to be celebrated with the same enthusiasm as before. That notwithstanding, let the following words of Saint Augustine still ring in my ears as we celebrate in whichever way possible: “Eat the bread of heaven in a spiritual way. Come to it freed from sin. Even though your sins occur daily, at least see to it that they are not mortal. Moreover, before you approach the altar note well what you say: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If you forgive others, God will forgive you.
First Eating: Deuteronomy 8:2-3.14-16.
Moses spoke to the people, saying, “You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. “And you shall remember the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know.”
V/ The world of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment:
Deuteronomy is the fifth of the first five books of the Old Testament. The first is Genesis, which deals with the origin of the world, mankind and the people of Israel; the second is Exodus, which recounts the Israelites’ escape from Egypt; the third is Leviticus, which gives the lists of the laws of the priests of the tribe of Levi; the fourth is Numbers, which gives the list of those who came out of Egypt and wandered about in the desert. These five books form a unit known collectively as the Pentateuch (from the Greek word for five books), or as the Torah (the Hebrew word for the Law).
In this passage, Moses reminds the Israelites about the way they were tested in the wilderness and how God gave them special protection and fatherly care, feeding them with manna from heaven. Israel’s departure from Egypt marked the beginning of God’s saving plan for his chosen people. The wilderness, described as terrible, helped to make the people of Israel realize that they needed God and helped them to hope in him. The Promised Land, a good land, particularly when compared with the wilderness, shows God’s kindness towards Israel: in it they will find rest, peace and happiness.
Especially helpful for today’s feast is the description of manna as food, which helped the people of Israel to undertake their pilgrimage. It is the food of travelers, which God freely gives to his people, signifying his abiding presence and the power of his Word to save. Israel never ceased to hope for a renewal of this heavenly food.
Moses, however, reminds the Israelites that “Man does not live by bread alone.” These are words Jesus would later quote when rejecting Satan’s first temptation in the desert after he fasted for 40 days (Mt 4:4).
Let this feast of the Blessed Sacrament lead us to praise God for never abandoning those who turn to him. Let us pray: “God of presence, God of power, refresh and strengthen us with the bread of life, that we may eagerly continue our pilgrimage and grow stronger as we travel toward our heavenly home. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Second Reading: First Corinthians 10: 16-17.
Brethren, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
It is thought that Paul wrote this first letter to the Corinthians towards the end of his stay in Ephesus in the spring of AD 57. He had sent Timothy to Corinth (1 Cor 4:17; 16:10) and we hear in Acts of the Apostles (19:8, 10, 22) that Paul had been two years and three months in Ephesus before Timothy left.
Paul was well aware of the difficulties the church of Corinth was facing. There were various parties in dispute, with Christians even bringing cases before pagan courts, and there was a general laxity in church worship. The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to correct such errors among his converts of Corinth. Paul warns that divisions among Christians are divisions in the one body of Christ.
In the passage of our meditation, Paul tells us that the principal effect of the Blessed Eucharist is intimate union with Jesus. The very name “communion” means becoming one with our Lord by receiving his body and blood. Due to this intimate union with Christ, the Eucharist is at one and the same time the sacrament where the entire Church demonstrates and achieves its unity, and where a very special kind of solidarity is developed among Christians. That is why the Eucharist is called “a symbol of unity” and a “bond of love.”
The body and blood of Christ make us one with him; they unite us together as his community. Christ is one; so must his Church be since she is fed with his body. As our beloved Saint Pope John Paul II, says in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “The Church was born of the paschal mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an outstanding way the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the center of the Church’s life.”
Let us pray. “Lord Jesus Christ, you gave us the Eucharist as the memorial of your suffering and death. May our worship of this sacrament of your body and blood help us to know the salvation you won for us and the peace of the kingdom where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”
Gospel acclamation: "Alleluia, alleluia. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven, says the Lord. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. Alleluia."
Gospel: John 6: 51-58.
At that time, Jesus said to the crowds of the Jews, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to ear?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The readings make this clear. The reading from First Corinthians states that in the wine and bread we share at Mass, we are in effect “sharing the body and blood of Christ.” The Gospel presents the drinking of the blood of Christ and the eating of his body as sure means to eternal life.
Our beloved Saint Pope John Paul II, reminds us that “the Eucharist is truly a glimpse of heaven appearing on earth. It is a glorious ray of the heavenly Jerusalem which pierces the clouds of our history and lights up our journey.” Let us this day approach the Eucharist with a livelier faith in the real presence of Jesus among us. Jesus, who is love. Jesus, who is the incarnation of generosity.
When Christ talks of the necessity to eat his flesh and drink his blood, is he promoting cannibalism? Not at all, says Cameroonian Jesuit Priest, Stephen Kizito Forbi. In Jewish mentality “blood and body” indicate the whole person and the event they signify. It means celebrating the person of Jesus Christ and his saving death in which we share when we partake in the Eucharist.
The Church’s calendar is full of celebrations to Jesus Christ. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ, that is, the inauguration of the salvation of sinful humanity. On Holy Thursday, we celebrate Christ’s offering of himself to us as a permanent presence. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate Christ the conqueror of sin and death. On Ascension Day, we celebrate Christ the forerunner or pathfinder, who goes ahead to prepare a place for us at the Father’s right hand. At confession, we celebrate Christ who reconciles us to one another and to God the Father. In the sacrament of marriage, we celebrate Christ who happily unites us to God’s work of creation. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we partake in Christ’s kingly, prophetic and priestly mission. The list is long. So, what then is so special about Corpus Christi? Asks Father Kizito.
Corpus Christi, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, is a celebration of our unity with Christ, our communion with Him and with other believers. Today’s readings bring out this theme of unity forcefully. The desert experience of the Israelites in Deuteronomy is a rigorous course in spiritual fitness. The Israelites have to rely on God’s manna for survival. The reading from First Corinthians emphasizes a truth of faith, namely, that the body of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine is not something, but someone. Christ is truly and wholly present in the Eucharist.
In sharing the one body of Christ like a loaf of bread, we break the wall that separates Christians. In sharing Christ’s body and blood, we become united to one another. “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, many though we are, are one body for we all partake of the one loaf,” says Saint Paul.
When we partake in the body and blood of Christ we become united to Christ and through him we are united to God the Father. “The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day,” says the Lord (Jn 6:54).
Corpus Christi is therefore a feast that should break down the walls and barriers that divide churches and Christians. It is a celebration in which we rejoice that the divisions that cripple the Church from within have been overcome.
During this feast, therefore, we should be happy and thankful to God for the union of the work of Christians and the unity of churches through the work of Christ. Let us also pray that God should give us the strength to remove any obstacle that hinders us from truly practicing our Christian faith. Let us, for the sake of Christ, pray for reconciliation with those whom we call enemies. We also pray for people who have isolated themselves from the Church: people who no longer come to Church out of laziness or bad company, or because they have lost their faith. In short, let us pray for the healing of the wounds of division. Let us make it a religious duty to always receive Holy Communion in a state of grace received through a good confession. We make all these supplications through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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