Today we commemorate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ in honor of the Real Presence of the body (corpus) of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. During Lent our readings focused on the various covenants God made with the people of Israel and with us. Beginning with Noah, then with Abraham, Moses and the prophets God reminds us over and over again that He loves us and that we are to love and respect God and each other.
With Jesus, God enters into a different covenant with the world. St. Paul tells us in the second reading today from Hebrews 9:11-15, that Jesus “is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.” Through His cross and resurrection Jesus frees us from sin and gives us the promise of eternal salvation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1331) teaches that every time we participate in mass and receive Holy Communion “we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body.” When we participate in and receive Eucharist, we are united with Jesus and with the whole Church throughout the world. The Eucharist we receive is the same Eucharist received by the Holy Father, all the bishops, all the priests and the whole church. In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, St Paul teaches, “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 Eucharist means giving thanks. As you receive Eucharist today remember to give thanks for the remarkable gift given to us by Jesus.
O Jesus, present in the sacrament of the altar,
teach all the nations to serve you with willing hearts,
knowing that to serve God is to reign.
May your sacrament O Jesus be light to the mind,
strength to the will, joy to the heart.
May it be support of the weak, the comfort of the suffering,
the wayfaring bread of salvation for the dying
and for all the pledge of future glory.
Amen.
Pope John XXIII (1881-1963)
