THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST, Year A 14/06/2020

Brothers and sisters, this Sunday, in the Roman Catholic Church we are celebrating the feast of food. To grow physically strong, we eat good and healthy food, lift up weight, exercise our bodies, and get enough sleep. On this Sunday, we have an opportunity to remember that Christ gave us another kind of food; the spiritual food. Today, we also have the opportunity to remind ourselves how much we need this spiritual food to grow spiritually strong. Jesus explains this concept to the Jews; that his body and blood will spiritually nourish them, and that, this food is different from the food God gave Israel in the desert. Therefore, Jesus is offering us a way to be living in him and he in us.

            So today, we are celebrating the feast of the body and blood of Christ as spiritual sustenance. Every time we gather to celebrate this spiritual sustenance, traditionally known by its Latin name ‘Corpus Christi’, our faith is built, developed, and flourishes, we also become the living Body of Christ.

            The first reading reminds us that God fed his people with food called ‘manna’, and water as he brought them out of Egypt. Similarly, as we journey towards our ultimate environment of values, love, and eternal nourishment, where our hunger and thirst for life will be fulfilled, Christ feeds us with his body and blood. It is the finest wheat the Psalmist praises, that gives peace and keep us on the right path.

            Paul reminds us in the second reading of the relationship between the bread and wine, and the body and blood of Christ. Through this one bread, we are united and form one body of Christians that has an intimate relationship within itself. Even as we prepare to re-open our churches, let us also prepare to renew our intimate relationship with Christ through the Eucharist, and with one another.

Joy and Peace.