Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, one of the oldest feasts in our liturgical calendar.  When we reflect on the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, most of us, because we are Roman Catholics, focus immediately on the Eucharist.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us 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” (CCC 1324).  Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, expanded this theme of Eucharist as source and summit in his Encyclical on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis, on the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church's Life and Mission (February 2007).

Because each of us receives the Eucharist individually, it is easy for us to turn our reception of the sacrament into something very personal and private.  We are receiving Jesus.  We are uniting ourselves to Christ through the sacrament.  However, Eucharist is not a private experience.  Eucharist is a shared community experience.  Emeritus Pope Benedict tells us, “The love that we celebrate in the sacrament is not something we can keep to ourselves.  By its very nature, it demands to be shared with all” (84).

 In today's gospel, Luke 9:11b -17, the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, we have a large-scale example of Jesus sharing the gift of his love and compassion.  He did not restrict the miracle to the twelve disciples; he fed thousands of people.  This miracle was a community event.  Everyone present participated in some manner.  It is the same with the Eucharist.  Every person present is an active participant.  We gather as a community to celebrate and give thanks for the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We gather as a community bearing the name Christian, followers of Christ.   And, there is an expectation that we will carry the Eucharist within us out into the world.

Emeritus Pope Benedict  reminds us that, “Our communities, when they celebrate the Eucharist, must become ever more conscious that the sacrifice of Christ is for all, and that the Eucharist thus compels all who believe in him to become ‘bread that is broken’ for others, and to work for the building of a more just and fraternal world.  Keeping in mind the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, we need to realize that Christ continues today to exhort his disciples to become personally engaged: ‘You yourselves give them something to eat’ (Mt 14:16).  Each of us is truly called, together with Jesus, to be bread broken for the life of the world" (88). 

God our Father,
you fill the hungry with the food they need
and you do not let the poor go away
with empty hands.
Keep speaking to us the Word of your Son
as the inspiration and guide of our life.
Let Jesus sustain and restore us with his body
and refresh us with his drink of joy,
that we may share ourselves with each other
and become each other’s delight.
Let his bread of life be the pledge
of your unending bliss and happiness.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.