Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. If we attended mass today, our parish priests probably prepared excellent homilies for us. They usually put their heart and their very best efforts into their homilies. Hopefully, your parish priest gave an excellent homily about the Eucharist today. Even in the service of Christ and his holy church the priests often do not think of themselves though, they always direct our attention away from themselves and toward Jesus. This is something to make note of because the first reading, the psalm and the second reading today was about the priesthood. The first reading today says “And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High”. The responsorial psalm today says “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The second reading from the book of Corinthians tells us how the Lord Jesus formed a new and eternal covenant with his people through the institution of the Eucharist:
“The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. “In the same way took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Jesus formed this new covenant with his disciples and all of us shortly before he was arrested and it has remained with us for over 2,000 years and will indeed be with us until he comes again at the end of time. That is, if enough men hear Christ calling them to the priesthood and answer that call. Many are called but only a few actually answer the Lord’s call to dedicate their lives to serving him. The noise and lures of modern life distracts many from listening to the call that they have received from the Lord.It takes a genuine spiritual life, not a surface faith, to spend enough quality time in prayer to get to know the Lord on a deeper level and hear his voice speaking to their heart. This is true for all of us, laity included, but in a more profound way with those who are called to the priesthood.The Lord Jesus chooses them but do they choose the Lord Jesus? The ones who do choose Jesus are more precious than gold in our church.They are the treasure of the church. Our priests bring Jesus to us in word and sacrament and serve not only the Lord, but all of us as well. We should never forget that we are their family, because they never married and had families of their own. We should pray for our priests by name and as a group on a regular basis. The devil is on the prowl throughout the world and our priests need our prayers and support as members of the body of Christ.
Jesus was all about service too though.His entire life was a gift of himself in love to the world. The Lord didn’t have one selfish bone in his body. After a long day of preaching to the crowds and healing their sick he did not decide it was quitting time and end his day in time for dinner and a little rest. No, Jesus’ focus was always outward, not inward and we would do well to follow his example too. Why did Christ decide to feed the entire crowd of five thousand men? Most of us are not theologians, but many theologians have looked at this event in the life of Christ as a precursor to the Eucharist. Perhaps that was what was on the mind of Jesus, to feed the people bread as a means of showing his disciples and future believers how he meant for his body and blood to be given to his people. It may have also been a way to demonstrate that the miracle he performed in multiplying the bread to feed five thousand people, was the same kind of miracle that transforms the bread and wine into his real his body and blood as well. The multiplication of the bread was a miracle for the people and it still is today, a miracle that takes place every day on all of the altars of the world. The term for this miracle of changing the bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood is called transubstantiation by the way. And when the priest consecrates the body and blood of Jesus Christ on the altar, he stands “in persona” of Christ. He acts in the place of the Lord himself, for all of us. Jesus has no human body to do this, except for theirs and that is why we need our holy priests. They are the treasure of our church.
But, the greatest treasure of our church is the Eucharist. It is really sad that one third of all Catholics do not believe in the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. They believe the Eucharist is a symbol or representation of Christ.This viewpoint is also held by the majority of our Protestant brothers and sisters as well. But, this is what sets us apart as Catholics. We literally believe the words Jesus spoke in John 6: 53-56:
“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.”
If we believe the words of the bible that Jesus spoke, telling us that he would die for the forgiveness of our sins, then how can we disregard the words that Jesus spoke that his “flesh is true food and his blood is true drink”?
Why is it important that we believe that the Eucharist we receive at mass really is the body of Jesus Christ? Christ gave us the answer in the Gospel of John: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”He said this for a multitude of reasons, but one of them is because he wanted us to know that we are never alone.We think we are going about our daily lives and dealing with all of our problems and concerns all by ourselves, but that really isn’t the case. The Lord is too. We carry Jesus inside of us, as a part of us, wherever we go and in every situation we find ourselves in.The challenge is to remember this.The world is distracting and so many things demand our attention and it’s easy to loose our awareness of Christ within us. We can feel lost, alone, afraid or depressed when we forget that Jesus is with us, in this most intimate of ways. He is profoundly within us as the very best friend we could ever have, the lover of our souls. For no one loves us more than the Lord Jesus Christ. We are more precious in his eyes than all of the world, because we belong to Him. We are His.
Maybe it is time we become more aware of who lives within us and who we belong to. We are never alone and never have to struggle with life’s problems and heartaches by ourselves, if we remember the Lord Jesus is alive within us. He alone can break the bonds of heartache, loneliness, depression or suffering but only if we believe that Jesus is truly present within us, through his body and blood that we receive each Sunday at mass.
Jesus is our consoler, defender, friend, brother and the lover of our souls, who will love us until the end of time. Even if it should ever feel like we have been abandoned or deserted by loved ones or our friends, that is never the case with Jesus. Let us turn to the one who knows us and loves us more than all others, and maybe get to know him again, in a more profoundly personal way, through prayer and his sacraments during the week ahead.
