Reflection on Jun23rd 2019
Reflection of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Going to Communion or Living in Communion
Reflection of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Going to Communion or Living in Communion
2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Psalm 34:8-13; Matthew 6:24-34
Link to Readings
Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In a way we celebrate the feast on the Holy Thursday. Although we celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the Church wants to emphasize its importance by a special feast, formerly called “Corpus Christi.” One of the main ideas of this feast is to teach us to appreciate and make use of the great gift of the Holy Eucharist, both as a Sacrament and as a sacrifice.
We tend to see “going to Mass” very much in individual terms. If “I” fail to “go to Mass” through “my own fault”, “I” have committed a mortal sin. We also tend to talk about “hearing” Mass, or being “at Mass”. We ask questions like: “Who said the Mass?” The priest himself may even be heard to announce: “I am saying this Mass for the repose of the soul of…” or even “I am saying this Mass for all of you here”.
On reflection, these expressions are very strange. They tend to present the Eucharist as something that the priest alone does on behalf of other people with the help of Choir and Eucharistic Ministers. We fit Mass more conveniently to our lives by coming late, having no respect to Holy Communion, leaving before it ends etc. Jesus' greatest gift, the gift of His own Body and Blood, is often rejected when we refuse to believe in the Eucharist or when we have attitudes of selfishness at Mass.
Jesus is the most rejected, divorced, and abused Person Who has ever lived. Yet He keeps coming back for more. He makes Himself so vulnerable when He faithfully and constantly changes bread and wine into His Body and Blood. However, Jesus exposes His broken heart to further brokenness because He is God, Who is Love. Love loves unconditionally. Love loves even if hated and crucified in return.
Every Lord’s Day we come together as that Body, as a community, to say thanks to him and hence the name “Eucharist” which means “thanks”. “Going to communion” is not a private “receiving” but a sharing, an eating together of the one Bread and the shared drinking of the one Cup. This one Bread and one Cup represent Jesus in his Risen Body; it includes not only Jesus but the whole community present. We recognise in the sharing not just the individual Jesus coming to me but Jesus in his Body, of which we are all part.
On this solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, decide to accept the grace to love our Eucharistic Jesus. Offer your body as a living sacrifice so that His Body and Blood will no longer be disbelieved, ignored, and pushed even further into the margins of so many people's lives. Make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Finally let's ask Him to transform not only the bread and wine but also ourselves. May Jesus' Eucharistic presence be the center of our lives as we devote ourselves "to the apostles' instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers".
Then we will not just go to the communion but con-celebrate the mass and living in communion.
Link to Readings
Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In a way we celebrate the feast on the Holy Thursday. Although we celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the Church wants to emphasize its importance by a special feast, formerly called “Corpus Christi.” One of the main ideas of this feast is to teach us to appreciate and make use of the great gift of the Holy Eucharist, both as a Sacrament and as a sacrifice.
We tend to see “going to Mass” very much in individual terms. If “I” fail to “go to Mass” through “my own fault”, “I” have committed a mortal sin. We also tend to talk about “hearing” Mass, or being “at Mass”. We ask questions like: “Who said the Mass?” The priest himself may even be heard to announce: “I am saying this Mass for the repose of the soul of…” or even “I am saying this Mass for all of you here”.
On reflection, these expressions are very strange. They tend to present the Eucharist as something that the priest alone does on behalf of other people with the help of Choir and Eucharistic Ministers. We fit Mass more conveniently to our lives by coming late, having no respect to Holy Communion, leaving before it ends etc. Jesus' greatest gift, the gift of His own Body and Blood, is often rejected when we refuse to believe in the Eucharist or when we have attitudes of selfishness at Mass.
Jesus is the most rejected, divorced, and abused Person Who has ever lived. Yet He keeps coming back for more. He makes Himself so vulnerable when He faithfully and constantly changes bread and wine into His Body and Blood. However, Jesus exposes His broken heart to further brokenness because He is God, Who is Love. Love loves unconditionally. Love loves even if hated and crucified in return.
Every Lord’s Day we come together as that Body, as a community, to say thanks to him and hence the name “Eucharist” which means “thanks”. “Going to communion” is not a private “receiving” but a sharing, an eating together of the one Bread and the shared drinking of the one Cup. This one Bread and one Cup represent Jesus in his Risen Body; it includes not only Jesus but the whole community present. We recognise in the sharing not just the individual Jesus coming to me but Jesus in his Body, of which we are all part.
On this solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, decide to accept the grace to love our Eucharistic Jesus. Offer your body as a living sacrifice so that His Body and Blood will no longer be disbelieved, ignored, and pushed even further into the margins of so many people's lives. Make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Finally let's ask Him to transform not only the bread and wine but also ourselves. May Jesus' Eucharistic presence be the center of our lives as we devote ourselves "to the apostles' instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers".
Then we will not just go to the communion but con-celebrate the mass and living in communion.