Jun 22 Sun
Why do we celebrate this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ?
The words of the Entrance Antiphon remind us: God has fed them with the finest wheat and given them their fill of honey from the rock.
For many years, God fed manna to the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. This was an image and symbol of the pilgrim Church and of each individual who journeys towards his or her definitive homeland, Heaven. That food given in the desert of Sinai is a figure of the true food, the Holy Eucharist. This is the sacrament of the human pilgrimage. Precisely because of this, the annual feast of the Eucharist that the Church celebrates today contains within its liturgy so many references to the pilgrimage of the people of the Covenant in their wanderings through the wilderness. Moses often reminded the Israelites of this wonderful deed that God had performed for his People: Do not then forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Today is a day of thanksgiving and of joy because God wants to remain with us to feed us and to strengthen us, so that we may never feel alone. The Holy Eucharist is the food for the long journey of our days on Earth towards the goal of true Life. Jesus accompanies us and strengthens us here in this world, where our life is like a shadow compared to the reality that awaits us. Earthly food is a pale image of the food we receive in Holy Communion; it is a completely new reality.
Although we celebrate this feast only once a year, the Church proclaims this most happy truth every day: Jesus gives himself to us daily as our food, and He remains in our Tabernacles to be for us the strength and the hope of a new life, a life without end and limit. It is a mystery that is ever alive and ever new.
Thank you, Lord, for remaining with us. What would have become of us without you? Where would we have gone to restore our strength and to ask for consolation? From the Tabernacle, how easy you make the way for us!
The Corpus Christi procession makes Christ present in towns and cities throughout the world. But his presence cannot be limited to only one day, like a sound you hear and then forget. It should remind us that we have to discover Our Lord in our ordinary everyday activities. Side by side with this solemn procession, there is the simple, silent procession of the ordinary life of each Christian. Each Christian is a man among men, who, by a great blessing, has received the faith and the divine commission to act so that he renews the message of Our Lord on earth.
Let us ask Our Lord, then, to make us devoted to the Blessed Eucharist, so that our relationship with him brings forth joy and serenity and a desire for justice. Thus, we will make it easier for others to recognize Christ; we will put Christ at the center of all human activities. And Jesus’ promise will be fulfilled: ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself’ (John 12:32).