June 18^th 2017. CORPUS CHRISTI - The Body and Blood of Christ

GOSPEL: John 6, 51-58

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL; John 6, 51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"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."

The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you. 
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day. 
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink. 
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him. 
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me. 
This is the bread that came down from heaven. 
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Kieran’s summary . . . Sunday is the feast of Corpus Christi. The first reading from Deuteronomy recalls that God fed the people of Israel for forty years in the desert with manna, a bread they had never known previously and one that they did not understand. Despite this incomprehension, the Lord still formed them into a people through the trials and the darkness. In the Gospel reading, the Jews once again cannot understand what Jesus is doing. How can he give them his flesh to eat? But Jesus does not ask for our comprehension. He asks for our self-abandonment into relationship with him. We can understand all mysteries, but that is of no use if we do not respond to God’s invitation into communion with him. Relationship doesn’t require comprehension. We don’t fall in love with someone by looking at an analysis of their blood. We fall in love with them through communication and relationship. The giving of himself to us as food is not something that we need to explain in a logical or rational way. Even without understanding it, we can appreciate that this giving of himself is a radical call to union with him. God wants to be in relationship with us, and look how far he is willing to go! God so wants to be in union with us that he allows us to consume him! Normally the person who eats is more important than the food that is eaten. And Jesus wants to be with us so much that he makes himself our very food. We need God above all other things in life. Food is a basic requirement and that is why Jesus becomes our food, because he is our most basic requirement of all.  Let us believe in his love for us! Let this love drive out our fear so that we are as willing to unite ourselves to him as he is to us! May our experience of the Eucharist be an experience of radical and complete union with God.

For forty years in the desert, God fed the people with a bread that they didn’t know or understand. Through their trials and darkness, the Lord formed them into his people

On this feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrate the gift of Christ to us in the Eucharist, our sacramental relationship with Jesus through this immense, substantial reality of the body and blood of the Lord. The key to interpreting this feast is given to us by the readings which speak of the surprising innovations of God. The first reading from Deuteronomy speaks of the forty years of humiliation and trial in the desert during which the people of Israel were formed. These trials served to expose what was in the heart of the people, the quality of the relationship between Israel and its God. During this period of formation, the people were fed with manna, “a bread that was unknown to them or their fathers, so that they might learn that one does not live by bread alone”. The fact that this bread was unknown to them actually led them to embrace a greater mystery and achieve greater understanding. Man does not live on bread alone but on that which comes from the mouth of God.

Jesus does not ask that we understand him but that we abandon ourselves to relationship with him

In the Gospel passage we encounter again the theme of incomprehension. The Jews argue among themselves, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?” Once again, we are up against something which does not permit a clear rational solution of the Cartesian kind. The bread that is being referred to is not something to be understood but consumed. This is the point. What kind of food and drink is this which is being described as “true food and true drink”? Our wonderful Catholic tradition has provided explanations of the Eucharist, for example in terms of transubstantiation, but these efforts always leave us on the threshold of the mystery. It is not possible to explain in a comprehensive way. The meaning of the Greek word for “mystery” does not signify something that we cannot understand, but something that can only be understood if it is lived. We are invited to eat his body, not understand his body. We are invited to drink his blood, not understand it. The law of our salvation indicates that it is not comprehension that is necessary for redemption but something more. We can understand Trinitarian theology perfectly, comprehend the nature of good and evil, but remain completely cut off from salvation, because we have never responded to that which we have understood. Everyone is capable of entrusting themselves to God; no superior intellectual capacities for understanding are required. In the reading from Deuteronomy, the people live by what comes from the mouth of God, and by being obedient to this word that comes from God. This is open to simple, uneducated people, to people in crisis or whatever state of mind. All of us can abandon ourselves in obedience to the Lord.

Just as we need food and drink so we need to be in relationship with the Lord. Corpus Christi announces that God is here to be encountered, tasted, lived

Jesus does not try to explain to us how his flesh becomes our food. Instead he speaks of “remaining” in him. “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” This is the point: not to have a logical comprehension of the situation but to live for another. We don’t fall in love with another person by reading an analysis of their blood. We fall in love with them by speaking with them, becoming involved in an interchange with them, entering into relationship. What do we celebrate on Corpus Christi? Many things, but fundamentally the fact that we can enter into relationship with God. Our explanations of the Eucharist will always fall short. But fortunately we can still encounter him in this simple yet marvellous sign. The encounter may be sublime but it occurs through the elementary act of eating and drinking, of living by him. Our one real necessity in life is to be in relationship with Our Lord. Our anxieties and deficiencies are resolved in him. In him, beyond the pure question of comprehension, our lives find that which truly matters.

This feast highlights the fact that Jesus has placed himself utterly at our disposal. It tells us that we no longer need to fear anything. Our God has come down to become our very food.

In the act of giving himself to us, we understand him in an experiential way. We discover that he is someone who is for us. That is the secret contained in the Eucharistic mystery. A person exists who is utterly dedicated to us. His body is true food for us, his blood is true drink. For what is more important, the person who eats, or the food that is eaten? Normally it is the one who eats that is most important, but the Lord Jesus places himself in front of us as that which is eaten, consumed. He places himself at our service, at our disposal. If only we could believe in this love, celebrate this love, enter into it. Corpus Christi is a feast that calls us to develop the art of not having any fear of eating him, not having the dread of giving ourselves to him. How much more does he give himself to us! May our reception of the Eucharist become a fundamental experience in our lives where we discover that there is the real possibility of radical union with God, a union that is physical and complete.