Today we celebrate Feast of Corpus Christi

 

Homily Cycle B (6-06-2021)

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060621.cfm   

Today we celebrate Feast of Corpus Christi – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ.  I want to focus on four things, two doctrines and two personal actions: The Real Presence and Transubstantiation, and an embrace/hug and a kiss.

In Exodus the people told Moses: “We will do everything, that the Lord …” asked of us.  In the letter to the Hebrews, we heard that Christ “… is mediator of a new covenant …” one that promises an “… eternal

inheritance.”  Jesus redeemed you and me, Thank you Lord.

Jesus Christ The Bread of Life is our bread of life.  Our Gospel is Mark’s account of the Last Supper, where Jesus offers His Apostles and us - His Body and His Blood, in the Eucharist.  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] there are 88 full paragraphs dealing specifically with The Eucharist, and many more references to the Eucharist in the Catechism.

 

Today I will focus on one: “Jesus is present to us in many ways, but only in the Holy Eucharist is He uniquely and substantially present — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. This is the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.”  [CCC, # 1373-1374]

Timothy O’Malley wrote a terrific book “Real Presence: What Does It Mean and Why Does It Matter?”  He writes, those “… doctrines are not a physical or technical explanation of what happens in the consecration at Mass.” [O’Malley, p.14] “It is not a physical change.” [Ibid., p.5]

At the Last Supper Jesus asked to be Remembered, and the Eucharist does that.  This meal through the language of covenant, a new covenant, is the gift of His Real Presence.

 

These two stories may help us appreciate the doctrines and the personal actions.  6-year-old Mortakai refuse to go to the school, when his Mom or Dad took him, he ran home, his parents tried everything, and nothing worked.  Desperate they went to their Rabbi, who said if the boy won’t listen bring him to me.

The Rabbi did not say a word, he held the boy to his heart for a long time and then put him down.  This silent embrace accomplished what words could not.  The young boy went on to become a great scholar and Rabbi.[The Sunday Website of St. Louis University, “In Exile”, Ron Rolheiser OMI, 6-7-15]    

In the Eucharist God embraces, God hugs us!

As a boy growing in Hungary before WWII George Docsi loved dinner… big plates, the maids serving soup, the dining room, one evening at dinner time he went to the dining room, and it was in an uproar.  A persecution was taking place in Russia, and his grandfather went to the railway station and brought home some Jews.

Men were in skull caps in the living room, mothers nursing babies in the dining room.  George threw a fit and yelled, “I want my supper! I want my supper!”  One of the maids saw this and gave him a piece of bread.  He threw it on the floor and screamed, “I want my supper!”  His Grandfather entered the dining room at that moment - bent down, picked up the bread, kissed it and gave it to George.”  Kissing the bread was a beautiful act.  George said, “… I think there’s a little of my grandfather in me now.”  [The Little Book on the Human Shadow p. 41]

The silent embrace and kissing the bread are personal actions that remind us that Jesus embraces and kisses each of us with the Eucharist; the doctrines of the Real Presence and Transubstantiation need knowing and loving because they help us remember the most precious gift, the kiss and embrace of the Lord.

I pray that we appreciate Jesus in us, in a personal and profound way when we receive the Eucharist.

St. Joseph pray for us. 

St. Andre Bessette intercede for us. 

May God Be Praised!