A Banquet of Love

Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ

Corpus Christi

June 9-10, 2007

Reading I: Genesis 14:18-20

Responsorial Psalm: 110:1,2,3,4

Reading II:1Corinthians 11:23-26

Gospel: Luke 9:11b-17

Once there was a newly ordained priest who was sent to a country parish. After several months in the parish he felt terribly lonely and homesick; missing his friends at the seminary. He thought of getting a pet to give him company. Off he went to a nearby pet shop. Going through all the pet animals, he decided to buy a talking parrot.* “I know this one is very expensive, but I am sure this will cheer me up,” he said to himself as he excitedly brought it to his presbytery.

But several days passed and the parrot hadn’t uttered a sound. The priest went back to pet shop owner and complained. “What it needs is a ladder for the cage,” the man said. “When it goes up and down, it’ll start talking. But the parrot didn’t speak a word. So the priest returned and complained. “Ah, Father, what it needs is a swing,” the owner said. But a week went by, and still the bird didn’t talk.

When the priest returned to complain for the third time, the pet shop owner said what it needed was a mirror in the cage. But again it didn’t work. Another week passed and the priest came back to the pet shop, this time he was mourning. He reported that his expensive parrot had died. The owner was embarrassed. “I’m sorry to hear that Father, but did it say anything at all?” “Yes,” said the poor priest. “As my parrot drew its last breaths, finally it spoke. It said: “Father, don’t they have bird food in the pet shop?”

****

Food
Food is essential to sustain life. All living things plants, animals, microorganisms and humans need nourishment in order to live. Without food we will get hungry deteriorate, and having no nourishment we will eventually suffer the grim fate of the talking parrot in the story. :(

But as Christians, we need another kind of food not only for our body but a kind of food that also feeds our soul. And this food is the Body of Christ offered to us at Mass in Holy Communion. Jesus promises eternal life to whoever receives this food, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting and I shall raise him up on the last day” (cf Jn 6, 5.1-55)

A Meal that feeds the Body and the Soul
The Gospel reading today is not much about the feeding of the five thousand people or the miracle of multiplication of the bread, but it is a story where Jesus leads his followers to recognise the Food and Drink that do not perish. Jesus is preparing the people for the greatest miracle that is going to happen when he will offer himself at the Last Supper – as Flesh to eat and Blood to drink.

At the Last Supper Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist as a sacramental banquet and a sacrificial offering. As a sacrament, the Eucharist is a visible sign that gives us a share in Jesus’ divine life. Jesus is the Bread of Life from Heaven that nourishes people’s spiritual hunger. This is what in the every Eucharistic celebration as Jesus offers himself as the Bread of Life, to nourish our spiritual hunger and needs. In fact this is what we are going to receive later on at Holy Communion.

Real Presence
We believe that Real Presence of Christ (both his humanity and divinity) in the Blessed Sacrament for only one reason: because Jesus tells us so, and we trust Him completely.

[Cyril of Jerusalem [A.D. 350]). "Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the body and blood of Christ. . . . [Since you are] fully convinced that the apparent bread is not bread, even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and that the apparent wine is not wine, even though the taste would have it so, . . . partake of that bread as something spiritual, and put a cheerful face on your soul".]

Throughout the history there were numbers of Eucharistic miracles that happened in different parts of the world. God has allowed visible miracles to occur in order to strengthen our faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. After proper investigation, two Eucharistic miracles have been authenticated by the Church:

I will mention only one. In the year 1263, a priest from Prague was making a pilgrimage to Rome in order to ask God to strengthen his faith, since he was having doubts about his vocation. Along the way he stopped in Bolsena, seventy miles north of Rome. While celebrating Mass there, as he raised the host during the consecration, the bread turned into flesh and began to bleed. The drops of blood fell onto the small white cloth on the altar, called the corporal. The following year, 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus, today’s feast Corpus Christi.

Reverence to the Blessed Sacrament
Having said the Real Presence of the Jesus under the appearance of bread and wine it is therefore important to have a sense of reverence when receiving the Lord in Holy Communion.

Reverence, of course, is an attitude or feeling of awe and respect for something or somebody I value. Reverence comes from the heart. Although it comes from the inside we show reverence on the “outside” through respectful actions or gestures. First instance as sign of respect to other people we bow our heads, we tip our hats, we kiss the hands of our parents or grandparents, and we wear descent clothes when visiting important people.

More than ever, of course, reverence and respect are expected when we approach, encounter and receive the Lord in Holy Communion. When we receive our Lord either by mouth or by hand let us be filled with such deep and genuine faith in His presence in the Eucharist.

Practically we ensure that our mouth is clean beforehand not only of food or bubblegum but also with bad words or unkind judgment against others. If we are receiving Holy Communion by hands we ensure that our hands are clean not only with pen marks (eg. phone numbers!) or other stains but also we try to free our hands from ruthless and hurtful motives against others.

When the minister says “The Body of Christ” you reverently respond “Amen” with firm conviction that you are receiving not just a symbol of Christ but it is Jesus himself who is coming to you personally to be your spiritual nourishment.

Jesus nourishes our spiritual needs and keeps us under his loving care. In Holy Communion, we receive Jesus Christ, who offered for us the most perfect act of love - the total sacrifice of self – by his death on the cross and glorious resurrection.

Are you hungry for God and the life he offers us?
At the Holy Communion let us allow God to fill up our interior longing, and our spiritual hunger that material things cannot fulfill.

Let us pray that through this Eucharist each one of us will come closer to Jesus – the Bread of Life – so that we may not experience hunger but gain EVERLASTING LIFE. Amen.