SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (CORPUS CHRISTI).

SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (CORPUS CHRISTI). YEAR A. Readings: Deut. 8:2-3, 14-16; Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16-17 and John 6:51-58. THE EUCHARIST: OUR SOURCE OF BREATHE. 14.06.2020.

 

While going through the readings of this Sunday, I had a pause to reflect on how many Catholics still have the burning desire to receive the Holy Eucharist, having stayed at home for months without receiving it sacramentally? Do you still hunger or thirst for it? Are you one of those who no longer long for the Holy Eucharist because of the pandemic or social distance? Have you become so used to online masses and feel there may be no need coming together to celebrate the Holy Eucharist again? Are you among those who is neither bother with spiritual communion nor sacramental communion? Dear friends in Christ, this solemnity calls us to reflect on the Eucharist, the source of our breath. It reminds us of the wonderful gift of God to us through Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Traditionally it is celebrated Thursday or Sunday after Trinity Sunday with procession of the Body of Christ. For pastoral reasons (the month of June is the season of rain), the church in Nigeria have her procession at the end of the liturgical year, with the feast of Christ the King. It is a day of thanksgiving for the institution of Holy Communion on Maundy (Holy) Thursday.

 

The Body and Blood of Christ (the Eucharist), is the most excellent gift ever given to us by Christ and is the sacramental presence of Christ in his Church. Today’s celebration also helps us to have a rethink of the Eucharist and it’s importance in the life of the church. Without the Eucharist, there is no Catholic Church and without the Church or her priest, there is no Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our life and faith, the center of our celebration, the pillar of the church. It is NOT a replacement or taking the place of the Bread and wine (ex nihilo – out of nothing) NOR is it substantial dualism, what the Lutherans call consubstantiation. It is for us as Catholics TRANSUBSTANTIATION. That is, by the very words of consecration of a validly ordained priest of the Holy Mother Church, there is an ontological change of the Bread and Wine, which is transformed to the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

 

In the first reading, Moses reminded the Israelites of how good God was to them. God nourished and sustained his chosen people Israel through their journey in the desert by giving them food (Manna) and drink from heaven. He reminded them on how God cared for all their needs especially, by providing them manna from heaven. In giving this food and drink to his people, God demonstrated his love for them, his willingness to see them through and of course, his ability to sustain them physically and spiritually. In like manner, in our own time God has given us His son Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. He has given us the body and blood of Christ for the life of the world as well as for our own life too, so that we can breathe.

 

In the second reading, Paul reminds us of the unity of the Church through sharing in the one Body and Blood of Christ. This is typical of what happens during the Eucharistic celebration, people, communities, races, and nations are united as they share in the Body and Blood of Christ. At every Mass, our attention is called to the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ in it. Also, the celebration of today portrays the Church as the Body of Christ because of the intimate communion, which Jesus shares with his disciples. He expresses this in the gospels by using the metaphor of a body in which He is the head. This image helps keep in focus both the unity and the diversity of the Church.

 

Christ in this Gospel gave a hard catechesis that made some of his followers deserted him. He fearlessly proclaimed, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven…The bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world…if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood; you will not have life in you.” With this catechesis, Christ and his believers were grievously accused of cannibalism, of which has been made against Catholics in various ways ever since. He said His body is the true food and his blood true drink. It was a strange teaching to the Jews that was why they reacted saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So they gradually backed out. Even as they desert him, Christ never compromised his teaching, He insistently and consistently taught them of His divinity, “I AM.” He is the God that gave manna to the Israelite in the desert as seen in the first reading, of which they ate and died. In today’s Gospel, He tells us, “He who eats my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life.” This is drifferent from the manna in the desert. Maybe, one of the most “scandalizing” Catholic doctrine is the “Real Presence” of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament otherwise known as transubstantiation. Many people and perhaps even Catholics with epileptic kind of faith today have the same reaction as those disciples who heard Christ preach it for the first time in Capernaum and were scandalized. However, the truth is that, His body is true food and his blood true drink. It is different from the “ordinary food” we eat daily and the Manna that the Israelites eat in the desert and yet died because, “whoever eats the body and drinks the blood of the Son of Man will never die.”

 

In a nutshell, while we have our daily food and the manna in the desert to sustain our physical life, the Eucharist sustains our Spiritual life. The Eucharist gives us the grace to feel forgiven and to be ready to forgive each other. This way, we are encouraged to have a rethink of the sacrament of reconciliation, of which some may give excuses because of the pandemic. The question is, are we truly sorry and ready to reconcile ourselves with God? The Eucharist also influences our communal life, of which COVID-19 has deprived us and has created social distance among us. The act of coming together around the table is necessary, it is the first sign of communion, after which we receive the sacramental communion. However, COVID-19 is kneeling on our necks that we cannot breath anymore. Our cry today is that we want to breath, we want the Body and Blood of Christ, we cannot breath without Christ. Therefore, we are charged as Catholics, to earnestly pray for Christ presence in the Holy Eucharist to heal our land of the global pandemic, so that God’s people can reunite in the public celebration of the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, from which we have life. May God bless His words in our lives through Christ our Lord. Amen! Peace be with you!

 

Happy Feast Day of the Body and Blood of Christ!

Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ