A Reflection on Corpus Christi Sunday

This week we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Body
and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi. The focus is different today
from Holy Thursday when in the upper room Jesus instituted the
Eucharist, the mystery of offering Himself out of love and to be
present in elements of bread and wine. The solemn feast day of
Corpus Christi takes the elements of Bread and Wine and offers
them to us to reflect upon, to honor, pray, and to adore as Jesus
traces His origins and places our Eucharistic celebration in
Salvation History.
Jesus said He has been sent by a living God the Father who
has given Him life. Jesus said He is the LIVING bread that came
down from heaven sent to give life to the world. Those who eat
this bread will be LIKE Him – sent to give life to the world. Jesus’
flesh and blood, His humanity was obediently sacrificed out of
love for us. In the consecrated bread and wine, the
transubstaniated elements are Jesus who is a mysterious food for
us. The bread and wine that is offered at the altar – blessed by the
Holy Spirt, broken and poured out and given back to us forever to
be Jesus’ body and blood. In receiving Communion, eating His
flesh and drinking the cup of blessing, we become more and more
like Christ. We do not absorb the flesh and blood but we are
absorbed by them to become more Christ like. Like Christ we are
sent to give life to the world – to sacrifice ourselves out of love for

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others. This is a love, the daily crucifixion of ourselves to seek the
good of those around us. We undergo a gradual transformation
into Christ and are called to spread His love given to us,
throughout the world. The Body and Blood of Christ is the fruit of
the gift that Christ made of Himself on Good Friday, the gift of a
Love stronger than death.
In our humble offerings of Bread and Wine we are drawn
together in a unity, a solidarity to honor the sacrifice that Jesus
endured for us because of sin. In Communion we receive back the
Body and Blood of Christ blessed, broken, risen, to come again.
We might be a bit bewildered as we have been moved from being a
multitude to be a community, from anonymity to Communion with
Jesus: The Body of Christ. The Blood of Christ. Amen, Amen.
In our Amens we believe that we can and will be transformed
beyond our weakness, our frailties, and our failings to be one with
our God. Jesus in the Eucharist is the Living Bread come Down
from Heaven to be one with us. Thank you Lord Jesus