The Eucharist Our Meeting Place With The Lord

18-06-2017 SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (CORPUS CHRISTI)-YEAR A.

SCRIPTURAL READING:

1. Deut. 8:2-3.14b-16a

Ps. 147:12-13.14-15.19-20 (R. 12a)

1. 1 Cor. 10:16-17; Accl; Jn. 16:51.
2. Gospel Jn. 6:51-58.

Preamble:

Please dear friends I would like you to repeat these words after me;

Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I give my heart, help me welcome you.

Lord Jesus, I give you my ears, help me hear your voice,

Lord Jesus, I give you my mind, help me understand.

Holy Spirit rekindle in me the fire of your love. Amen.

THEME: THE EUCHARIST OUR MEETING PLACE WITH THE LORD.

Last Sunday we celebrated the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity-3 persons in the one Godhead-God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There is only one God, but God is a relationship of the Father and the Son-Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the persons in the Holy Trinity is really God, so the father is really God, and Jesus is really God, and the Holy Spirit is really God. But they are not all the same persons. Each persons in the Holy Trinity is also equal to all the others. So the father is not greater than the Son or the Holy Spirit; they are all equal and what makes this possible is the presence of Love which exists amongst them.

I told us last Sunday that the only way we can experience and come to know God is contained in what St. John tells us in 1 Jn. 4:8-“God is love,” and 1 Jn. 4:16 says-“we have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” We see and experience the height of this kind of love in the gift of his Son who comes to die to save the world-John 3:16 says-“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Our journey to eternal life begins here on earth and can only be guaranteed by our participation, and sharing in the communion and relationship that exists in the Blessed Trinity which is made possible only through the Sacrament of his Body and Blood-the sacrament we celebrate today.

The statement of Jesus in our gospel passage today says it all-“Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is real drink.” (cf. John 6:53-55)

Friends, we can only begin to enjoy this eternal life when we begin to understand once more the importance of Eucharistic worship and in particular adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Both are essential for the understanding of presence of the Lord among us as a people and in the sacrament of the Altar.

Once we miss the point of ensuring that the two go hand in hand, that is, the Eucharistic worship-which is the sacrifice of the Holy Mass and the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament-Benediction/Holy hour with the lord, it causes an imbalance in our spiritual life when we sacrifice one at the expense of the other. True celebration of the Eucharist begins with worship of the Eucharist, that is, adoration.

Beloved in Christ, I know so well that so much emphasis has been placed on the sacrifice of the Holy Mass but we must not let go of an essential aspect of the mass which is adoration for it is the continuation of the Holy Mass and it brings to us the fuller understanding of the tangible presence and closeness of Jesus to us who dwells in his house, he waits for us, he invites us to his table, then even after the sacrifice of the Holy Mass when we are dismissed, he stays with us, with his discreet and silent presence, and accompanies us with his intercession, continuing to gather our spiritual sacrifices and offer them to the father.

Today’s celebration is called or known as the feast of Corpus Christi or we say the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ as it is often called. It is a day the body and blood of our Lord is carried from the church to the outer world in a gesture of reverence and adoration for the sacrament of love.

Today we ought to make a procession but our climate wouldn’t permit us and so the procession is moved to the last Sunday of ordinary time-the solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. Where we listen to the Lord speak to us within the celebration of the Holy Mass/Eucharist, we approach the altar to receive him and afterwards Christ leads us as we stand side by side, walk side by side, kneel side by side, adore side by side each other before and around the sacrament of love which gives us our identity, and makes real our calling as Christians because he is always present.

The celebration is however still complete today because we shall observe a posture of adoration within the context of the celebration of the Eucharist and even in the evening during Holy Hour where we have prolonged silence before the Lord present in the sacrament.

St. Augustine says-“no one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it.” For in the Eucharist, the son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us; Eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the Eucharistic celebration, which is itself the church’s supreme act of adoration.

Dear friends, receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive. It is only in this way do we become one with him, and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy.

The act of adoration outside mass (benediction) prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself.

It is only when we adore the Lord can we truly respect what we come forward to receive each time at the altar of the Lord. It is only when we spend time with the Lord can we grow in strength to carry out our work as Christians and become able to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and most especially the walls that separate us from one another caused by our words, and actions. We learn to follow the Lord as he declared in Ps 86:11 “teach me, Lord, what you want me to do, and I will obey you faithfully; teach me to serve you with complete devotion.” We also learn to live with our fellow men and women as he commands us in John 13:34-35 “…and now I give you a new commandment: love another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

Love is made concrete when we share with each other the One Chalice and the one bread. Our participation in the one bread and one chalice is an expression of unity. Love and unity becomes possible because of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is instrumental in the process by which Christ builds himself a body and makes us into one single bread, one single body.

What happens each time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist is that the Eucharist unites us as Christians by bringing us from our state of separation into the unity of the one bread and one chalice which we share making us one body.

It is not as if we have many Lords with many bodies rather it is the one Lord who has given us his one Body that we participate in and share in order to enjoy the fellowship that exists in the Blessed Trinity and with ourselves here on earth.

This action of the Eucharist-which is the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord, makes the church a Eucharistic fellowship: out of the many peoples of which she consists there is arising one people, one bread, one chalice, one gathering and this is made possible by the one table the Lord has spread for us all. The church is also a network of Eucharistic fellowships, and she is united, ever and again, through the one Body we all receive. This is the point of the second reading of today’s mass.

The Eucharist dear friends, has also become for us a memorial of the Lord’s passion. It has become for us a perfect thanksgiving to the father in Christ Jesus who gave himself without any reservation. It has become our source of union with one another so that we may stand side by side with one another before the Lord in his presence. It has become what also unifies and bounds us with the father. It has become our participation in the heavenly banquet while we are still on earth.

Friends, let us renew our attitude towards the Eucharist for it is only when we begin to value and appreciate this august sacrament can we truly understand the true significance of today’s celebration. It is the body and blood of Christ that gives us our identity as catholic Christians. It is that which makes us ever want to draw closer to Jesus and reconcile with our neighbours. It is a celebration that reminds us of our participation in the Divine invitation. May the Lord lead us to honour his invitation as we partake in the Eucharistic banquet.

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O good Jesus, hear me.

Within thy wounds hide me.

Suffer me not to be separated from Thee.

From the malignant enemy, defend me.

In the hour of my death, call me.

And bid me come to Thee.

That with thy saints I may praise Thee. Amen.

Most sacred heart of Jesus……Have Mercy on Us (2ce)

Immaculate Heart of Mary……Pray for us.