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

Corpus Christi

June 14, 2020

Readings:

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

Psalm 147 “Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.”

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17

Gospel reading according to John 6: 51-58

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Homily: I am the living bread

Today we celebrate the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ also known as Corpus Christi.  We receive him in the Holy Eucharist of the Mass in the form of Bread and Wine.  Due to Transubstantiation, this Bread and this Wine becomes the living Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist.  Every time we eat his Body and drink his Blood we remember that during the Last Supper he said “. . . do this in remembrance of me,” before his passion, death and resurrection.

Like any other food, such as cooked rich, viands like fish, chicken, beef and pork, vegetables and fruits, bread like pandesal and sliced bread (tasty), noodles, burger, chippies and others that give strength and energy to the body to survive and live, but does not give satisfaction and eternal life, still we hunger and thirst for food.  Unlike the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that gives satisfaction and eternal life to our soul and body.  The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is true food for soul and body, and it gives eternal, joyful life.  “Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: ‵I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world′.”  (John 6: 51).  Jesus is saying the truth, he is not telling a lie (Totoo ang sinasabi ni Jesus, hindi siya nagsisinungaling).  Jesus himself said: “I am the living bread . . .,” no other persons in the whole world, either prophets, or kings, religious founders, emperors, the enlightened ones, seers, magicians, and others who dare to say that he or she is the “bread of life that came down from heaven.”  The bread unknown to anyone or “manna” is given by God the Father.   Only Jesus said that he is the bread that came down from heaven.  And whoever eats this bread (Jesus) will have eternal life and live forever.  This bread is his flesh that he will give to many who believe in him.  This bread gives life to the world.

The Jews were familiar with the saying “bread came down from heaven,” for it was told and retold in every generation from Moses down to the present Jews (see 1^st Reading, Dt. 8:3).  During the time of Moses and when the Jewish people were still wandering in the desert, he admonished the Jews with him and said, “Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.” (Dt. 8: 2).  He continued saying, “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 one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord” (Dt. 8: 3).  This the present Jews understood it very well, but what Jesus acclaimed to himself and told them “and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,” was a heavy saying which they cannot accept.   “The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, ‵How can this man give us his flesh to eat′?” (John 6: 52).  The Jews were divided among themselves and quarreled to each other, for some of them accepted the saying of Jesus, while others were totally rejected his claim.  For some Jews what Jesus was commanding “to eat his flesh” is taboo, inhuman, ungodly and cannibalism, for they took it literally instead of spiritually.  They were wondering as well as doubting how Jesus can give himself (his flesh) to the Jewish people.

Jesus repeated what he said to give more emphasis to what he commanded to do by the Jews.  “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′.” (John 6: 53).  With double “Amen,” he is saying and even giving highlight to what he was telling them to do was true and real.  To have life within us, we have to believe in Jesus’s words and to obey his commands, to eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist of the Mass, which he instituted during the Last Supper.  The Jews anticipated and did not wait until the offering of the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ, in the altar of the Calvary, where he offered his self on the Cross.  They anticipated that what he said was imminent and urgent, right here, right now.

Some other Jews, including the Apostles and disciples of Jesus understood very well what he meant when he said “eat my flesh and drink my blood.”  “‵Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day′.” (John 6: 54).  They do it in the breaking of the bread and sharing of cup filled with wine in their small group and communities.  They eat the Body and drink the blood of Jesus in the form of bread and wine.  “‵For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink′.” (John 6: 55).  In the eyes of faith, what they saw when they ate the bread was the real presence of Jesus’s Body and when they drunk the wine what they tasted was the real Blood of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is truly present in the Holy Eucharist.  

Again he reiterated his command not only to the Jewish people but extended even to us.  “‵Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him′.” (John 6: 56).  He encouraged those listeners to eat his flesh and drink his blood so that they will always remain in him.  We become one with Jesus every time we eat his flesh (bread) and drink his blood (wine).  In the 2^nd Reading, St. Paul said to the people of Corinth, “‵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 is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf′.” (1 Cor. 10: 16-17).  Every time we eat this bread and drink this wine, we participate in the offering of Jesus’s body and blood to God the Father on the altar of Calvary.  

The God the Father who sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to the world to become food for all, to give life to the world, is the same God who brought down from heaven the bread that saved the Jews in their exodus in the desert.  Jesus said, “‵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′.” (John 6: 57).  Thus, Jesus who received life from his Father in doing the will and command of God the Father, we too must also obey the will and command of Jesus to have life received in him.

Jesus, the real bread (manna) that came down from heaven, is the same bread he will share to us.  As Moses said, “Do not forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery, who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock, and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers” (Dt. 8:14b-16a). “‵This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever′.” (John 6: 58).  The bread from heaven that the ancient Jewish people ate and brought life until they reached the Promised Land, is the same bread we share and participate in the Holy Eucharist of the Mass that gives life and joy to the hearts.