“…True
Food and True Drink” (Jn 6:55)
1st
Reading:
Deut 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Responsorial: Ps 147:12-15,19-20
2nd
Reading: 1
Cor 10:16-17
Gospel: Jn 6:51-58
Today, we celebrate the
solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, commonly referred to as Corpus
Christi. The feast has its origins in the visions of St. Juliana of Liege in
the 11th Century.
I recently went through my WhatsApp
contacts. I noticed an interesting profile picture of a classmate of mine that caught
my attention. The picture showed a mother bird bleeding and the young ones
drinking its blood. He explicates the picture to me and calls the bird a
‘Pelican’. The Pelican pieces itself during the drought season and allows its
young ones to live by drinking its blood.
Christ is the true pelican
that gives not only his blood but his whole body so that we may have the
fulness of life. Unlike the faith community of Israel that ate manna and lived
only for a few years, Christ offers us the true food and drink that offers us
eternal life. Partaking in the Holy Eucharist of body and blood offers us
satisfaction and fulness of life. Jesus desires that we may live forever. The
Eucharist is a sign of koinonia (communion) with Christ. Whenever we
partake in the Eucharist, we are united with Christ just as He is united in the
Father (Jn 17:21). This unity extends to the entire Christian Community so that
we become one family in love because the body we partake in is One (1
Cor.17:10).
In the Old Testament, God
used prophets and priests to communicate his Word to the people. The people
lived on “...every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut
8:3). However, the word sometimes proved to be limited. Through the cause of
interpretation and conveying the message, the original meaning was sometimes
lost. Hence, God sent his only beloved Son in whom he himself speaks. Jesus,
the Eucharist becomes a new way in which we feel the embrace and presence of
God among us. God allows us to embrace him by partaking in the Eucharist, he
becomes versatile and allows himself to be embraced. In the Eucharist, God
touches us, flesh to flesh, he comes into our mouth, our whole person.
It
is important to evaluate myself as I contemplate this Mystery. Do I believe in
the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist? Or is my belief in the
Eucharist only a symbolic one, one that has only to do with the bread the comes
from wheat and the wine from the earthly grape? When I look at the Eucharist,
what do I see? Do I see Jesus, or do I see mere bread? It is only when I see
Jesus that I will embrace the Eucharist and feel the satisfaction that comes
with having him in me. To understand the Eucharist is to understand Mass, for
in the Mass, God becomes powerless and weak allowing himself to die so that we
may have life. This is the Love we experience even when we feel that we are not
worthy, because he will never take revenge. He only allows us to embrace him and promises to always be with us; in our strife, our difficulties, our
addictions, because the Eucharist is God’s loving presence among us.
Akwiri Harrison CMF
II Year Theology
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