THE FEAST OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

THE FEAST OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (CORPUS CHRISTI)
                        Deut. 8:2-3. 14-16 1Cor. 10:16-17 John 6:51-58

                      THEME:   JESUS THE LIVING BREAD

  Dear friends today we celebrate the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.-Corpus Christi. It is a day set aside for us in order to reflect on the meaning and importance of the Holy Eucharist or Holy Communion which we receive in the church. The Holy Eucharist is central in our lives as Christians; it is the source and summit of our life and worship. In the Eucharist, we receive Christ whole and entire; he nourishes and strengthens us on our journey to eternal life.
The Pope instituted Corpus Christi a year after a priest from Paraguay according to an ancient account. A monk was celebrating mass in the monastery of St. Longinus. But he had doubts about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. So during mass as he said the words “this is my body, this is my blood”, with doubt in his soul, the bread and wine changed into living flesh and blood into five different pieces (corresponding to the five wounds of Christ). Even today people go to church of San Francisco in Piazza where this miraculous body is preserved to see it. On the day this feast was first celebrated, St. Thomas Aquinas composed four popular hymns which have been used for Eucharistic adoration and Benediction for many centuries now’ These are; 1.Tatum ergo sacramentum 2. O salutaris hostia. 3. Panis Angelicus.  4. Pange Lingua.

Fr. Solomon Zaku

Food as we know is one of the basic needs of man. We all need food to survive. Just as our bodies need physical food to survive so also our souls need spiritual food. Jesus knew that we need this spiritual food that is why he gave us his body and blood. In the text we read from the Gospel of St. John Jesus Said” I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for forever; and the bread I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world”
Christ continues: “this is the bread that comes down from heave, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread, will live forever
Jesus meant what he said. On the last supper, he took the bread and said “this is my Body and the cup and said “this is my blood”. In 1Cor 1:23-25 St. Paul Said “ for I received from the lord what I also passed on to you: the lord Jesus on the night before he was betrayed, took bread and said this is my body which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way after suffer, he took the cup saying; “this is the cup of new covenant of my blood, do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me”
As we celebrate this feast today, I want us to focus on three important things:
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF HOLY COMMUNION /EUCHARIST.
The Eucharist is very import for us all as Christians. Jesus said it all:
It is food for eternal life
It is food for our souls
It food for our journey
Through its reception we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Through its reception, Jesus lives in us and us in him.
Why are you not a communicant? What are you doing to remove the obstacles? Don’t to want Jesus in your life? Why not make efforts?
2. THE NEED FOR PREPARATION.
The fact that you are baptized does not give you automatic   ticket to receive communion.
One needs to prepare himself or herself
We have to live holy lives because being in a state of grace is a condition for receiving the Eucharist. St. Paul in 1Cor 11:27-31 says, before we eat the body and blood of Christ we must examine ourselves. “For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment upon themselves”. Preparation before receiving the body of Christ is therefore necessary. It is also necessary to live our lives modeled around the Eucharist. Unfortunately today many of us fail to prepare ourselves for it, even if we do, only for a short while, we fail to live out the life fully. (Short story)
How do you prepare yourself for the reception of the body and blood of Christ?  do you come mass lateWhen last did you Go for confession. Are you charitable, generous and ready to make sacrifice like Jesus who gave us his body and Blood?
LIVING OUT WHAT WE RECEIVE:
We need to live like people who have christ in us.
The body and blood of Christ which we received daily is to draw us closer to Christ. As people who break the bead, we must live holy lives by loving, forgiving and bearing with one another.
It should not be a thing one will be bragging about.
The reception of Eucharist has today become a routine. Many people receive it not because they believe in it but because they see people doing it. Many receive it for social reasons. Today, there are few people in the confessional but almost all the church goes for communion on Sundays. The question one may ask is, are people no longer sinning today?  The reason for this is that there is a lost of the sense of sin in our society, many people do not see the need to repent or go to confession, because they think that they are not sinful because everybody is doing it or committing the kind of sins they are committing.
For our healing God sent his own son (nobis natus nobis datus), Jesus Christ. “It is love that gives itself, love which remains in the holy Eucharist, love which multiplies itself, love which sacrifices itself, love which unites us love which saves us.
The holy Eucharist is the bond of love. The one who receives the holy Eucharist must understand the call to love his brothers and sisters. One must expand the space of charity from oneself to others. We must give concrete expression of this love even in the temporal and human plane. “In his church (Jesus Christ) instituted the wonderful sacrament of the Eucharist by which the unity of the church is both signified and brought about.”
St. Paul says and we heard it in the second reading of today’s liturgy of the word: “the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1cor 10, 16-17)
Our lord instituted the holy Eucharist under the form of bread and wine to signify and effect communion with God and with our brothers and sisters. Food becomes part of us. So the holy Eucharist enters into communion. Communion with God means communion with our brothers and sisters.
All those who receive the holy Eucharist form one family. It makes us forgetful of ourselves so to give ourselves to others. It makes us think in a practical way of those who suffer, who are ill, and who lack the necessities of life. It makes us concerned for those who are tried by war, hunger, terrorism, lack of essential freedoms, among which in the first place is the freedom to profess ones faith.
St. Thomas writes: “how precious and wonderful is the banquet, which brings us salvation and is full of all delight! What could be more precious! it is not the meat of calves or kids that is offered, as happened under the old law; at this meal Christ, the true God, is set before us to eat. What could be more wonderful than this sacrament! No sacrament contributes more to our salvation than this; for it purges away our sins, increases our virtues, and nourishes our minds with an abundance of all the spiritual gifts.”

Dearly beloved in Christ, as we celebrate this feast let us examine ourselves and see our attitude towards the Eucharist. What does the Eucharist mean to me? What difference has it meant in my life? When last did I receive the Eucharist? When last did I go for confession? If I am not receiving it what is stopping me and what effort am I making to receive it?
As we reflect on these questions, let us ask the Lord to give us the grace to appreciate the Eucharist in our lives. Let us always receive Jesus the living bread worthly.May we always receive it worthily and may it transform our lives so that we will have the opportunity to celebrate the eternal banquet with our Lord in heaven, through Christ our lord.

By Fr. Solomon Zaku