Body and
Blood of Christ C 2022
Today we
celebrate the Feast of the Eucharist; the Feast of Corpus Christi; the Feast of
the Body and Blood of Christ. At the in
initiative of our National Conference of Catholic Bishops, we are beginning a
three-year process of Eucharistic Renewal in which we seek to deepen our
relationship with Christ Jesus by being fed and nourished at the Table of the
Lord and continuously giving thanks to the Lord our God for the many blessings
we enjoy.
May we
ponder in faith and in awe the mystery that we celebrate.
Today as we
receive Communion, as we receive the host in our hands at Communion, we are
holding the Body of Christ. We are
holding Jesus who taught us his parables of love and forgiveness for one and
all. We are holding in our hands Jesus
who walked on the water. We are holding
in our hands Jesus who died on the cross to save us from our sins.
What a
profound privilege we have to receive the Body and Blood of Christ!
Regrettably
we too easily take for granted this mystery of the Eucharist.
Sad to say,
it is easy to neglect spiritual food.
It’s too easy to skip daily prayer and the weekly celebration of the
Eucharist. We often don’t seem any worse
for the wear and tear. But over the long
haul, we can get out of touch with our deepest spiritual hungers.
The thing of
it is with spiritual hungers; we can be spiritually hungry without being in
touch with our deep hunger. As the great
St. Augustine, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are
restless until they rest in thee.
Far from
being a pit stop for fast food and entertainment in the journey of life, the
gift of the Body and Blood of Christ is the necessary sustenance for the
spiritual growth of each member of the community and for the community itself.
As we
reflect on the mystery of the Sunday Eucharist, we are reflecting on the
central prayer of our faith tradition.
We are part of a tradition that is nearly 2000 years old. The Sunday Eucharist is our participation in
the paschal mystery of Christ Jesus. The
Sunday Eucharist satisfies the deepest hungers of the human heart.
Today is
Father’s Day. We congratulate and bless
all the fathers of our faith community.
You are a blessing to us all.
May the
fathers of our parish community keep us in touch with the deepest spiritual
hungers are for Jesus’ power to love and forgive his enemies rather than
embarrass and crush them. What we hunger
for is Jesus’ power to be bighearted; to love beyond one’s own family, and to
love poor and rich alike; to live inside of charity, joy, peace, patience,
goodness, despite everything in life that militates against these virtues.
Left to our
own will power and our own desires, we get too easily trapped in
self-centeredness. The truth of the life
of all of us is that we are deeply flawed by sin.
With great
joy, we have recently celebrated two First Communion weekends in the
parish. The spiritual joy experienced in
our First Communicants and in their families is so very precious. The ritual of our First Communion
celebrations is so inspiring. It is a
moment of joy for me as a priest to give First Communion to one of our younger
parishioners. In age-appropriate ways,
they celebrate the life-giving presence of Jesus within them. Thanks be to God.
The
challenge we have as a parish community is to sustain our Eucharistic faith and
joy continuously throughout the year.
Even though our First Communicants won’t be wearing their communion
dresses and suits Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, nonetheless the God whose
love for us is unending continues to offer to us the Bread of Life and the Cup
of salvation always.
As the
congregation approaches the altar and receives communion, it is as if the
Church is filling up with Christ. We are
not only in union with Christ, but we are also in communion with all those who
receive him. The Eucharist is a
community affair, not simply Jesus and me.
We are not only in union with Christ; we are in communion with all those
who receive Christ. This is the meaning
of Church. The Church is a people of God
who are in union with Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist. We are also a people in communion with all
those who receive Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.
There are
some who want us to judge whether a person is worthy or eligible to receive
Communion. I am clearly not in that
lane. I believe that none of us are
worthy to receive Communion as we pray before receiving Communion: Lord, I am not worthy that you should come
under my roof but say but the word and my soul shall be healed.” This is a profound truth that it is the love
and mercy of Jesus that enables us to approach the altar.
As Pope
Francis, the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect; it is medicine for the
sick.
The
Eucharist is our bond of communion with Christ who cleanses us our sins and
unites in marvelous communion with God and gives our dignity to be God’s
beloved sons and daughters. Further, the
Eucharist binds us together with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ
Jesus. We are called to the Body of
Christ – the bearers of hope and love to people who are sick in body and
spirit.
The Mass is
our greatest prayer; we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God. Yet it is what we do outside the Mass that
also determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each
Sunday. By our mutual love and by our
concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of
Christ. Go in peace glorifying the Lord
by our lives in all that we say and do this day and every day.
As a
Eucharistic community, we gather with an attitude of gratitude. We gather to give, to give thanks to the Lord
our God. We give thanks because we have
been fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord with a food that enables to
live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives. Amen
Have a
Blessed Day.
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