Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
May 25, 2008
Gospel :Jn 6:51-58
A Sunday school teacher asked her class where God lives. One little girl said, “God lives in heaven; another said, “God lives in church; another said, “God lives in our hearts.” Then little Johnny said, “God lives in our bathroom.” “What makes you say that, Johnny?” He answered: “Every morning my dad stands at the door of the bathroom and shouts, ‘My God, are you still in there’?”
Of course, all of those answers were correct. God lives in heaven, in church - and in our hearts. God even lives in the bathroom. However, God lives in a very special way in every Catholic church throughout the world.
If you walk into any Catholic church you should see a single red candle – and close by the red candle something that looks like a very ornate safe. It may be right behind the altar, or off to the side, but it should be somewhere within the main body of the church. We call it the tabernacle because it contains the Holy of Holies. This is where Jesus lives.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Church places this feast immediately after Trinity Sunday and Pentecost – both of which honor the invisible God. Today’s feast honors the God that we see and embrace – the God that is present on the altar while still under the appearance of bread and wine – Jesus present in the Eucharist.
A young physicist once took a consecrated host to a laboratory. He wanted to see whether the bread had really been changed into the Body of Christ. He placed it under a microscope, but it still looked like ordinary bread - so he decided to give up all religious belief and practice. He did not lose his faith – because he had no faith to begin with. Faith is the ability to believe in something we cannot prove. Since he could not prove the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, he refused to believe.
In contrast, a Protestant woman, after attending Catholic mass only a few times, announced that she had decided to become a Catholic. Asked why, she answered, “Well, the sermons were so terrible and the music so dreadful, that I knew there must be something else there to make them want to come.” She may not have been able to give a theological explanation of the Eucharist, but she felt something that could not be explained in purely human terms.
Our belief that the Eucharist is the real presence of Christ is the major distinction between the Catholic Church and most other Christian denominations. It has brought many non-Catholic Christians into the Church. This power of the Eucharist to attract people should be justification enough to believe in the Real Presence.
At what point during our liturgy does the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ? Most of us were taught that it is when the priest elevates the bread and wine and repeats the words that Jesus uttered at the Last Supper: “This is My Body. This is My Blood.” Many in the eastern Church, believe that it is when the priest extends his hands over the bread and wine and invokes the Holy Spirit to “come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” It is not important when it happens – only that it does happen.
We should never take it for granted, because at every celebration of the Eucharist something extraordinary takes place. The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is really and truly present on the altar. A few minutes later, he enters our bodies - and our hearts – and becomes, really and truly, part of us.
When a person is dying, the last Holy Communion is called viaticum – food for the journey home to the Lord. The communion we receive here today – and every day – is also food for the journey – for the journey through life. It strengthens us for all the twists and turns along this sometimes rocky road. Jesus compares it to the food that God provided the Israelites during their long journey from captivity to freedom.
But that food – the manna God sent from heaven – could only sustain them a little while. All who received it would eventually die. The food we share today – the Body and Blood of Christ – sustains us throughout eternity. “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
After the elevation of the bread and wine, the priest prays: “Grant that we, who are nourished by his body and blood, may be filled with his Holy Spirit and become one body, one spirit, in Christ.” This is a second consecration – another transformation – that expresses the ultimate purpose of the first. The Body and Blood of Christ that we receive from this altar transforms us into the Body of Christ that we are meant to be for the world.
We come here not just to receive Communion – but also to enter into communion – with Jesus, with one another, with the entire Body of Christ throughout the world, with all of God’s creation.
This is our mission – to be the Body of Christ in a world that hungers for Him.
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