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The Body and Blood of Christ - Cycle C


Sacred Scriptures

Genesis 14:18-20
Psalm 110
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Luke 9:11-17
This weekend's celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ is a unique challenge for us as Catholics.  This is a time to ask how have we become what we receive in the Eucharist.  As often as we gather as a parish family for the celebration of the Eucharist, do we find ourselves being changed?  Is the Eucharist a challenge for us to begin some sort of conversion?  Are we letting the Holy Spirit not only come over the gifts of bread and wine, but also over ourselves so that we may become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ?  We are the Body of Christ in this world.  Our celebrating and receiving the Eucharist must always be a remembrance of that.

To confine the graces of Christ's living and true presence in our world to the Sacrament of the Eucharist is to place limitations on God and the relationship that we can enter into with God through Jesus Christ.  Yes, we can be certain of the presence of the Risen Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  Yes, the Blessed Sacrament is the life of our Church.  But, we cannot only allow ourselves to see and experience the Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  We must become what we receive.  We must as the Vatican II Fathers said, become a living Sacrament in our world as the Church family.  We have to be able to look to one another, all members of the Body of Christ, and find the same true presence and be nourished by that presence just as when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ.  It is a challenge to put the Eucharist into action; to become intensely Eucharistic people. 

My experience in Brazil has shown me that Christ is truly present in every moment and every person of our lives.  The challenge is to enter into encounters with our brothers and sisters:  to live with them, minister to and with them, and experience the joys and frustrations that life brings, namely, to stand in solidarity.  The people of Brazil have shown me that we can nourish one another and receive the same living and true presence of Christ in daily life.  We did not celebrate the Eucharist daily in Brazil - it was not possible.  But we did live the Eucharist daily.  In the exchange of love and fellowship, of faith and even frustrations, we realized and entered more deeply into the Paschal Mystery of becoming one body and one spirit in Christ.

Do not let this celebration be anything less than what it is.  We celebrate the gift of the Sacrament of the Eucharist:  namely, the surety that the true presence of Christ is with us always.  We also celebrate the gift and challenge of being and becoming that same true presence for one another.                Peace, Shaun Lowery
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