MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST - A

MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST – A
(Deut 8:2-3, 14b-16a; 1Cor 10:16-17; John 6:51-58)
Theme: let us nourished by the body and blood of Christ so that we are full of life

Reflections

- Solemnity of the Most Holy Body an Blood of Christ:
o Most Holy, in the Catholic Liturgy, is used only for God and his nature: therefore, we have in the first instance ‘the Most Holy Trinity’ which we have celebrated last week and now we have another instance where we again contact this usage today ‘the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ’. In the no other instance or to the none other person is given this adjective ‘Most Holy’. Even for Mary once in one occasion this title is used and that too ONLY in her maternal relation to God: ‘Mother of God Mary most holy’.
o It is theologically very apt to call the Body and Blood of Christ a Most Holy and at least for two reasons: one, the Body and Blood of Christ IS the Same Person of Jesus Christ who is present in the form of bread and wine and his presence is perpetual and therefore IT IS THE SECOND PERSON of the Trinity himself who is present in the midst of his people as He promised; and second, the Body and Blood of Christ, the bread from heaven, is the GREAT GIFT OF LOVE OF THE TRINITY to the humanity.
- This solemnity nourishes on our journey towards heavenly Jerusalem:
o We have restarted the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity after completing the Time of Lent and Easter: with this we have started again our Journey in and with the Name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
o In our journey which we have re-initiated with the reflections of the Kingdom of God we need nourishment and that too the spiritual nutriment: And this is the Spiritual Nourishment which empowers and encourages us to walk along in the journey of life with its strength and energy.
- Supermarket and Supreme Market: Analogical Comparison
o Supermarket:
 The time: we prefer to go to the supermarket once in a week or sometimes even more fewer times as once in two weeks and still once in a month;
 The intention: Even before entering into the supermarket we know where to go exactly and what to buy and we add little more when we find something good and attractive;
 The tempting prices and offers: the prices in the supermarket are little lower than the other markets and there will be also sometimes the offer of the week;
 The observation: we observe well everything and in particular, the content, the quality and also the quantity;
 Filling: we fill our bags/sacks with everything we want to buy and get back home content, happy and without bothering for another few days/weeks;
 The people: In the supermarket, most of the time, we find a group of individuals who come, buy and leave it without any instance of interaction;
 The result: as the individual business and individual shopping each one buys what he needs and eat alone and live alone and so there is individual joy;
o Supreme Market:
 Time: Even to the Church we come once a week and sometime still less: once in two weeks or monthly participation;
 The Intention: We already know to which Church to go and what we have to do, like participating, praying and receiving communion and we add little more wisdom and force of faith when we listen to the Word of God read and proclaimed in the homily;
 The prices: Even we have to pay for what we buy; if we need to have grace we have to pay the price of faith, hope and charity; we have also sometimes the free invitation by God which we can be sure with the prophecy of Isaiah through whom God invites: “You who are all thirsty come to the water, who has no money equally come; buy and eat without money and wine and milt without freely” (Is 55:1).
 Observation and reflection: we observe what is being done and what is being said and in summery what is being celebrated: the context (the content) of the Word of God and reflection of what it signifies (the quality) and how much (quantity) it signifies to our day-to-day life;
 Fill up: with all the attentive and prayerful participation we refill our hearts (the sacks and bags) with the joy of the Lord and go home with the full of life and spiritual energy;
 The people: as in the supermarket the people enter into the Supreme Market, the Church, as individuals and do not remain as a group of individuals but as a family and as a community; in the exchange of peace we come into interaction with each other and we become One Family and One Community for the Lord;
 The result: in the Supreme Market, the Church, it is no more individual business but it is collective/communitarian prayer and participation and therefore, we do not strive only for what we need but we pray also for what other need (common prayer and community which prays together) and thus WE EAT TOGETHER THE ONE BREAD AND WE LIVE TOGETHER FOR ONE LORD.
o Supreme Market, the Church!
 If we consider a market as a place where people gather for selling and buying, then, the Church could be a market, but a Supreme Market, where unlike just supermarket, there is the life of togetherness, the interaction of intimacy and bond of mutual and reciprocal love;
 It is only analogical, not theological, that we can always enter into the Supreme Market with its invitation to bag a grace of God, as in the supermarket where people come to bag what they need through the invitation of its publicity;
First Reading:
- The Memory of the Journey:
o Moses makes the people of Israel to remember the marvelous deeds that God has fulfilled in their midst and in a special way how He has brought them out from the slavery of Egypt and guides them towards the promised land: the land of honey and milk (once again Supreme Market);
o Moses asks them to recall how God has nourished them in their journey towards the salvation: about
 The bread: which He has provided them in the desert under the species of Manna;
 The water: which He has produced for them from the rock;
 The Word: above all, how He has led them through his words in the form of commandments;
 Those who eat the manna and drink the water live only in the desert/in the journey but they do not reach the promised land/salvation unless they FOLLOW His Words and Commands;
o Moses, finally, tells them that a man cannot live by bread alone but from the every word which comes from the mouth of God and Jesus also confirms this, in his confrontation with the devil and his temptations exactly at the beginning of his redemptive mission;
- The book of Deuteronomy is the collection of different fascinating homilies of deliverance from the land of slavery to the land of salvation:
o The main themes of this book are: the Law and the Gift of land
o Chapter 8 from which we have our reading for today is exactly the time of well being of Israel and their establishment as nation which has the culture of goods and values of progress and also the danger of sin of pride and self-continence.
o Here, Moses makes the appeal of the great phrase: “Remember” and this is the fundamental invitation to Israel to ‘Recall’ and to ‘Remember’. For:
 ‘Remembering’ makes them to increase their faith;
 ‘Recalling’ makes them to renovate/renew their alliance/covenant with God;
 ‘Memory’ makes them not to forget, in their well being and secure life and in their indifferent religiosity, the marvelous and wonderful deeds of the Living God in their lives;
o ‘remembrance’ in the biblical sense introduces us again into the story of salvation in which we re-actualize today all the events of the past and for this reason even Jesus makes this appeal to ‘make this in memory of me’ all events he has accomplished and in a important way, the event of Eucharist in which He has given his own Body and Blood for the salvation of all;

Second Reading:
- The Only Bread of Life is the Eucharist:
o Paul recalls (again the theme of remembering of the first reading) the Passover of Jesus and especially how has offered his life and given us in the form of bread and wine in which we really receive the ‘body’ and drink the ‘blood’ of Christ and so we have the eternal life in us;
o Above all, the same and one bread (the food of heaven) in which all of us participate/take part makes us not many but ONE PEOPLE in Christ: though we enter as individual into the Supreme Market, we become One just because we share only One Bread: Christ.
- The participation in this One Bread of Life makes us recall our authenticity in the Eucharistic celebration we have every day:
o After participating are we becoming One Body though we are different from each other?
o Are we really in communion with the other members of our community as the result of the one participation in the one and the same sacrifice of the Lord?
- This Pauline text is the basis for the communion/fellowship of Christians in living and in giving testimony to the life of Jesus and this text leads also the ‘communion’ aspect which Didache speaks about:
o As the grains of wheat which are collected from different fields and gathered together to make one bread, in the same manner, God gathers different people together and makes One Church;
o As the grapes which are collected from different wine fields and gathered together to make one product, so also, the Church, in the blood of Christ, feels united and nourished from the same aliments.


The Gospel Reading:
- Eat my flesh and drink my blood:
o The words of Jesus which seem and which are in reality, more radical and more orthodox, seems to create frustration and confusion among the listeners, in particular way, to the Jews who never understood the word ‘flesh’ beyond its material significance;
o God becoming man (incarnation) itself is incomprehensive reality for them and when he talks about ‘giving of his body and blood’ (Eucharist/sacrifice on the Cross) it becomes still more furious because they do not fall in their spheres of knowledge and in ‘the law’ which was given to them;
o Therefore, God’s birth (incarnation) and God’s death and resurrection (Paschal mystery) are most insignificant and they consider them as heresies and there they still do not believe in Christ, the Incarnated Person of God.
- The life for the recipient and the world:
o He who eats his body has the eternal life (v.51) and therefore, the individual believer who participates, celebrates and eats the body of Christ which was offered on the cross and re-enumerated on the table of Eucharist in ‘his memory’ has a life and life in eternity; the unique solution for our quest of eternal life, therefore, is eating his body;
o For the life of the world (v.51): there is also reference of the life of the world, not just of the individual; it signifies that the ‘body and blood of Jesus’ were offered on the cross and given as a food to all the world; therefore, the possibility is open to all but it is on the part of the world either to accept or reject this food of life with its free and willing participation or indifference.
- The four effects of ‘eating his body and drinking his blood’: one who does this
o Has the eternal life (v.54) – the grace which is already given on earth will be accomplished with the life in God;
o Will be raised up on the last day (v.54) – the glory which is already promised and nourished each day with the bread from heaven, will be final when the individual meets God face to face;
o remains in Jesus and Jesus in him (v.56) – the perpetual and permanent presence of Jesus in the participant of the Eucharist and his own gracious presence will manifest the life of God to others;
o live for Jesus (v.57) – the task and responsibility of the participant of the Eucharist; it does not go in vain; the reception of the body and blood of Christ will cloth the recipient with the testimony of life by the word and by the deed;


Conclusion:
- The Eucharist is the greatest of all the gifts that God has given us in Christ because:
o It contains the presence of the Trinitarian life: the grace of God, the love of Christ and the communion of the Holy Spirit;
o It is the eternal presence of Jesus with and amidst his people;
o It is the Divine Source from which the Church gushes out and the Church, which itself is the Body of Christ, which makes the Eucharist through the consecrated priesthood;
o It is the Fountain of all other life and ministries in the Church both sacramental and ministerial.
- The Eucharist makes the receiver to share the life received:
o The one who participates in this celestial meal, cannot but live the life of Christ and share it with others;
o If that happens and if one cannot share his life of faith and grace with others it means that it is ‘the bread received is the bread received with unworthiness and it is bread which is equal to that of what Jesus speaks fallen from the table.’
- The bread of the Angels: bread that is shared, bread by one to the other:
o There was a small story, I am not aware of its origin, but looks very meaningful for today’s reflection;
o The bread of devils: there is a dinner prepared for all the devils in a single and huge dish; there was a big spoon with which they have to eat; each one takes that big and try to eat but could not reach their mouth because the spoon is so long; each one tried and tried until they have left with lot of dissatisfaction and discouragement;
o The bread of the angels: the same kind of dinner was prepared and in the same manner also for the angels; but each angel started to feed the other with the same long spoon which is easier; and finally each had full and everyone is satisfied;
o The only difference is: the angels know how to share the bread and it is by feeding others and on the other hand, the devils were so selfish that they could not imagine of feeding other; when the bread of Christ is shared and life of Christ itself is shared;
- The Eucharist and the Fraternal Communion:
o The bread from heaven: is for all and to be consumed in fellowship; it has to be celebrated in the fraternal worship and eaten with the divine love because it is the gift of love of Christ to me, to you and to the world;
- Let us be nourished by the body and blood of Christ so that we are full of joy;