Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies
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Solemnity of the
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
June 10, 2007
Meals are more than opportunities to nourish our bodies; they are occasions to nourish our spirits with the presence of family and friends. The yearly Passover meal that Jesus shared with his apostles was a most sacred time to renew their belonging to God's chosen people and to each other. At the last Passover meal that Jesus shared with his friends, he left them a present of his presence.
Today's Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) celebrates the present of his presence among us in the Eucharist. It celebrates "present" in two senses. First, as gift. The Eucharist is Christ's gift of self, his self-giving in his Body and Blood that we share, and in divine grace as we honor him in the Blessed Sacrament through our prayer and adoration. We need the gift of the Eucharist if we are to become more like Christ in his living, dying, and rising. The present of Christ's presence becomes ours in the Eucharist so that we can share the presence and gift of Christ with others.
The second sense of "present" is "now". Christ is with us now just as really and truly as he was with the 5,000 hungry people who shared the multiplied loaves and fishes. The presence of Christ is a real Body and Blood presence, but a sacramental presence. It is his way of being with us, a personal presence that leads to our adoration. I may feel awe in the presence of Pope Benedict, but I don’t adore him. I do adore Jesus Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. Pope Paul VI said in Mysterium Fidei, "To visit the Blessed Sacrament is proof of gratitude, an expression of love, and a duty of adoration toward Christ our Lord".
One of the real presents or gifts I received during my years as a seminarian in Boston was meeting a young man named Steve Rayburn, a 20-year-old Cerebral Palsy victim. Steve could not speak or use his hands or legs. He communicated by means of a computer keyboard, which he operated by a stylus attached to his head. Pressing one letter at a time with the stylus was a slow, tedious process.
In spite of his physical weaknesses, Steve was a spiritual strong man! One day we were "talking" about the Eucharist. Steve described how receiving Jesus in the Eucharist gave him the strength to carry his crosses. He typed out: "One of the crosses is cerebral palsy's jerkiness. My muscles have spasms and my arms and legs jerk wildly until I think I will go mad. At these moments, I remember Jesus' torturous writhings on the cross. He had horrible muscle spasms which convulsed his entire body but he endured it silently. Can I do less with my little contortions with Jesus living within me?"
"Another heavy load Jesus helps me carry is requiring someone to care for my every physical need. Having watched my mother collapse from taking care of me, I know the feeling of being a burden and wanting to die. However, I recall that God humbled himself by being born a baby, and if almighty God stood helplessness, I can stand it too."
"Another cross is waiting for things. I have to wait to have my nose cleaned out when I can hardly breathe; wait to be covered when I am cold. In these periods I recall how patiently Jesus suffered on the cross. With Jesus' endurance within me, can I do less for him?" If you knew Steve Rayburn you knew the profound appreciation of what the Eucharist meant to him. You knew the profound strength that the Eucharist gave him.
On this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) the Church invites us to ask ourselves. "How deep is our own personal appreciation of the Eucharist?" "Do we have the same profound appreciation and find the same strength that Steve Rayburn has?" "Do we truly comprehend Jesus' present of his presence?"
If our answer is no, we find ourselves asking, "How can we develop a deeper personal appreciation of the Eucharist?" Because we usually receive the Eucharist each time we go to Mass, we can tend to fall into the habit of receiving it routinely. As a result, we can tend to lose our appreciation of it. Therefore, one way to deepen our appreciation of the Eucharist is to receive it more consciously, reflectively, and reverently. In other words, we can make a conscious effort to receive it with attention and devotion.
Let me make a suggestion. As you walk down the aisle to receive the Eucharist a little later on in Mass, focus your thoughts in a special way on who it is that you are to receive into your body.
For example, when the Eucharistic Minister holds up the Eucharist and asks us to affirm that this is the Body of Christ, try to realize that when you say "Amen" you are making an act of faith. You are saying, "I believe that this is the same Christ who took flesh and was born in Bethlehem." You are saying, "I believe that this is the same Christ who suffered for me and died on the cross for me." This is the tremendous truth that we celebrate in today’s feast. This is the tremendous gift that Jesus gave us at the Last Supper.
In our own time and place…no matter what our joys and sorrows, our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and failures…Jesus Christ comes to us in the Eucharist as God’s most wonderful and precious gift. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes," St. Paul tells us today in his First Letter to the Corinthians. "As often"…as often as we come together as the Body of Christ to share his Body and Blood in Holy Communion; "as often" as we remember with gratitude all that Jesus did to save us; "as often" as we are sent out from the Eucharistic celebration to be the Body of Christ in service to the world. "As often" as we do these things, we receive the present of Christ's presence to fill our every hunger and satisfy our every desire for God's love!