My brother e-mailed me this story which I think might help us reflect more as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, the heart of our Catholic worship and life.
A churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons and 3,000 communions. But for the life of me, I can’t remember even one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.” This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for even one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”
Don’t we feel sometimes like the writers of the letters to the editor? We need, therefore, to examine our understanding of what the Eucharist is all about. Our belief in the Eucharist has a two-fold focus. First, we believe in the real presence of Jesus, body and blood, whenever we celebrate the Eucharist. But secondly, we also believe that the church community gathered around the table of Jesus that celebrates the Eucharist is the body of Christ. Indeed, Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine that is transformed into his body and blood. But he is also present in and among the people who celebrate the Eucharist, listen to the God’s word proclaimed, and worship together. It is good that we have reclaimed this once neglected understanding of Jesus’ Eucharistic presence in the people who celebrate together especially the needy. The fundamental message of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is that the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is there to make us the real presence of Jesus in the world. Or as one theologian puts it: “our main task in the renewal of our Eucharistic celebrations is to lead people to appreciate the mass as the chief expression of their desire to encounter God in their daily lives and to offer God the totality of those lives.”
Jesus wants his presence in the Eucharist not to be our own personal experience alone. He wants it to be a source of life shared with the whole of humanity. He says in the gospel today: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
Response
Remember the four actions of Jesus in the Eucharist: Took, Bless, Broke, Gave. Allow God: to Take you; to Bless you and be a blessing for others; to be Broken to received healing; and, Given and shared as God’s presence to others.
