DEUTERONOMY 8:2-3, 14B-16A

Moses said to the people: "Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. "Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers."

1 CORINTHIANS 10:16-17

Brothers and sisters: 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.

JOHN 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: "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." The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

All through the history of mankind, people have been searching for the kind of food and drink that will bring long life and youth. There was a craze about ginseng, pollen-B, and Noni juice, because they are supposed to bring long life and youth.

In today’s Gospel Jesus offers us the most important food of all, the food that will bring us to everlasting life — his own body and blood. “The person who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal.” Jesus, the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Christ, is talking about the food and drink necessary to share in his risen life.

The Word has become flesh, was broken for us in his passion and death, and has risen from the dead. We are invited to be in sacramental union with the risen Christ. The glorified body of the risen Christ is truly present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Lord feeds us with the best of food. We are invited to be what we eat.

Unlike the material food we eat, which after being digested and assimilated becomes part of us. When we receive the risen Lord, we become part of him.

But Jesus reminds us that we must be prepared to grow spiritually if we are to benefit from the food and drink he is offering us. We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord, in his teaching, his commands of love and service of God and neighbor. If we are to benefit from this Body and Blood of Jesus, we must try to live his commands, and in turn the Eucharistic banquet will nourish and strengthen us to live his life in us.

The fruit or effect of the Eucharist will be an increase of love and service of God and neighbor, especially in the concern for those around us, not only our immediate family members, but especially for those under our care — students, employees, house-helpers and the needy. Does the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ help me to understand them and their situation better? Does the risen life of Christ in me help me to treat them with greater sympathy, compassion and respect?

This brings us to the question of why do we celebrate the Feast of The Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ? We have been receiving the Body and Blood of Christ practically every Sunday, or even every day. Perhaps we have taken the Holy Eucharist for granted precisely because Jesus made it so easy for us to receive him.

We do not always appreciate the rich diet Jesus has prescribed for us. Sometimes we miss a meal and sometimes we are not attentive enough to eat everything on our plate. We are easily distracted. We do not absorb the full benefit of the bread of life or the cup of salvation. We miss the point that full participation in the Eucharist is the high point of our life in Christ.

In the words of St. Paul: “Is not the bread we break sharing in the body of Christ?” Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. In the bread we break together, we celebrate not only that Christ was willing to be broken for us, but also that we are willing to be broken so that we might be in communion with him in his self-sacrificing love. Without being conspicuous, this willingness to be broken for others is the disposition required to fully participate in the Eucharist.

The Feast of Corpus Christi invites us to ask ourselves: What does Holy Communion mean to us? Do we still appreciate it as much as we did when we received it for the very first time? How can we deepen our personal appreciation, to get excited again about this precious gif t of Jesus to us?

One way is to try meditating on the Body of Christ as though you are discovering it for the very first time. In the week ahead, add a prayer of thanksgiving to your regular prayer for Christ’s gift of his body to us.

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Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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