Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (A)

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (A)

(Corpus Christi)

June 18, 2017

Readings:

First Reading – Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16a

Psalm 147

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Gospel reading according to John (6:51-58)

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Homily

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (Jn. 6:51). This is in reference to the first reading on Deuteronomy (8:3, 16a) when Moses reminded the people who has been directed by God in the desert for forty years, “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord . . . Do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt . . . and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers.”  Jesus was saying to the Jewish crowds that the “manna, unknown food to your fathers” is none other than he.  Jesus is the bread sent down by God from heaven, so that the Israelites of old and the Jewish people during his time, and we to this present age may also live forever.

“Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn. 6:51), this is his revelation, unknown to humankind – the manna, the food given by God in our hunger and thirst, is his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to satisfy our hunger and thirst.  As what Jesus said, “. . . and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51).  What does Jesus mean when he said that, “I will give my flesh . . .?” Does he mean his real flesh we are going to eat?  He will be easily consumed by 5,000 men excluding women and children if they will eat Jesus Christ literally. And, this is cannibalism, which is abominable in the sight of God and monstrous in men.  Even the Jews quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh?” (Jn. 6:52), as they understood it.  Or, does he mean another thing?  Maybe he is talking about spiritual food.  That is why Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn. 6:53).  Jesus talked about “life within you,” which is spirit and life, coming from the Lord God.

Jesus is inviting us to eat his flesh and drink his blood so that we may have life in him.  He made acceptable his saying when during the Last Supper he took bread and said a blessing and transformed this bread into his own flesh and the same with the wine into his own blood.  So every time we eat this bread and drink this wine we remember his offering of his own body and blood in the altar of sacrifice on the cross.  Therefore, “. . . whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn. 6:54), as Jesus our Lord said.  His flesh and his blood in the form of bread and wine give us life, hope and assurance that someday when the time comes, we will receive eternal life full of happiness and joy.  As he continued, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (Jn. 6:55), for he cannot deny himself.  All what he said is true – true food and true drink.  In the eyes of faith, it is no longer bread and wine we see in the Holy Eucharist, but the body and blood of him, who offered his life once and for all for the ransom of many, of us, who believed in him.

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn. 6:56).  If we eat his flesh and drink his blood we become like Him, being sent by God to others and to unite us in one body of Jesus Christ – though we are many but one in the One Body of Christ, like this community (his Church) in communion with Jesus Christ.  St. Paul clarifies more in the second reading, he said: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because the loaf of bread [and the cup of wine] is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16-17).  Though we are many, there is always bread and wine for us all to celebrate the giving of body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We cannot consume him forever until the end of time.  We participate actively in his life through the breaking of the bread in the hands of the priests throughout the whole world, distribute and receive by all those who believe in him.  This is what Jesus our Lord promised to us who eat his body (flesh) and drink his blood though in the form of bread and wine, acceptable to all, “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn. 6:57).  The Father who brought down manna, unknown food (bread) to the Jewish people before, which is now known to us that it was Jesus, the living bread sent by God to us and encourage us to eat the living and true flesh of Him so that we may have life and live with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  “This is the bread that came down from heaven” (Jn. 6:58) Jesus the Son of God, the manna, unknown bread becomes known to us as he humbles himself in the form of loaf of bread and cup of wine we receive in the Holy Eucharist.  “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died” (Jn. 6:58).  Every time we eat this bread and drink this wine, we proclaim the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice in his resurrection until he comes for “whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn. 6:58).  Amen.