The Body And Blood Of Christ (Year A)

Deut 8.2-3, 14-16
I Cor 10.16-17;
Jn 6.51-58

Many of the things which Our Lord says in the gospels are far from clear.  To understand anything in Holy Scripture, we always need the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  That guidance comes to us through the living tradition of the Church, in which the Holy Spirit is the divine soul, the animating principle.  Even with the help of the Spirit and tradition, it is not always immediately clear what the Lord means us to understand.  Today’s gospel, however, is an example of Christ teaching us something quite specific, something which leaves little room for any doubt as to His meaning.  The message is explicit, and is what we rejoice at in today’s great solemnity.  In plain and unambiguous language, Our Lord gospel teaching is about the most Blessed Sacrament of His own Body and Blood.  He reveals to us the vital need we all have to discern Him, and eat Him, in this miraculous and holy sacrament.

Most Catholics are quite familiar with the Church’s teaching about the true presence of Christ’s Flesh and Blood, in the Blessed Sacrament.  This doctrine is one of the most basic facts of our faith.  But at the time when Our Lord first expounded it to the Jews, it must have sounded quite extraordinary.  “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”   We should note that by way of reply, Jesus did not actually explain how He could do so.  He simply repeated His earlier statement, and went on to emphasize that if they wanted to have eternal life, they really would have to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood.  There can be no doubt at all that to His first audience, this was very, very shocking.  And perhaps it might even be a little shocking to us, if we think about it.  Eating, actually eating, our God! It hardly seems respectful does it?  We might even be inclined to soften the notion in our own mind, by thinking that Christ was perhaps speaking symbolically, or metaphorically.  However, to think that, would be to empty the gospel of its truth, its inspired meaning.  The Lord does go to considerable lengths to emphasize that He meant exactly what He said.  Eternal life comes by feeding on Jesus Christ.  Christ Himself is the bread which came down from heaven.  By feeding on Him, His own Body and Blood, we have the chance of going to the place where that living bread came down from – heaven above.

Today, we give thanks not only for this supernatural bread from heaven on which we feed in Holy Communion, but also for the abiding presence of Christ in the tabernacle.  Wherever the sacred species, the consecrated ‘bread’, is reserved, there is the Lord: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  That is why of course the tabernacle occupies such a place of honour in any Catholic church.  In one sense, as well as the altar on which God’s sacrifice is offered up to Him, it is the tabernacle which must always have pride of place.  Together with the altar, the reserved sacrament should be immediately obvious as the focus of attention in the church building. Christ in the tabernacle, presiding in patient love over the worship and prayer of His people, makes the Church what it is.  We must never fail to genuflect to the presence of Christ, whenever we pass in front of the tabernacle.  It is the throne of the King, the holy of holies, the fountain of all blessing.  
 

There is no greater asset in the world than the body and blood of Christ but it is worthless to us if we do not believe and live the life to which it calls us. When you and I receive d Eucharist, Jesus is seeking to do what He did to the bread and wine. He’s seeking to change us into the man, the woman, the teenager or the child He has called us to be and to give us the very grace to do that. The Eucharist motivates us to be like Jesus who gave His very life for our sake. We’re expected to be become selfless for the good and welfare of others most especially the poor and the needy. But sometimes we put up our obstacles and that obstacle is our sinfulness. What sins have been most difficult for you to overcome? Why? Who or what is replacing Jesus as the god you imitate? What will you do this week to give Jesus the opportunity to save you from sins?

 In the eucharist Christ is truly with us, but His sacred countenance, the adorable features of His glorified humanity, are veiled under the external appearance of the consecrated elements.   Not only are His Body, Blood and Divinity present, but also His human Soul. This should greatly console us.  His human Soul with its three human faculties like our own, memory, understanding and will, these are accessible to us in this sacrament.  The Lord who looked out at Mary and Joseph in the stable, Who walked on the waters of Galilee, Who received with such compassion the blind, the sick, the dying, the Lord Who hung on the Cross – that Lord is the living Lord who awaits us in His eucharist.  We come to Him poor, needy, sick, sinful, like beggars, and He never refuses us an audience.  He never withholds His generous gifts.  One day, the veil of sense will be lifted, and then we shall see Corpus Christi; we shall see Him face to face, in light, and be blessed forever, with that glorious sight.

Fr Joseph Osho