June 11th 2023. Feast of Corpus Christi

GOSPEL: John 6:51-58

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

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."

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

1. The sacraments are a practical way of entering into the divine life, which is not an abstract or philosophical thing. In the Eucharist we discover the surprising truth that God is a generous Father who gives himself completely for us.

The Feast of Corpus Christi, coming as it does after Trinity Sunday and the celebration of Easter, is a way of making concrete the mysteries that we have celebrated. We need to put into practice the divine life that we have received and thus we have the sacramental life. We cannot live the faith in an abstract or philosophical way. Rather, we practice it by means of the sacraments. The bread of the Eucharist is prepared in the Old Testament by the manna described in Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy. It is presented as an unexpected grace, something surprising. In the Gospel, there is also something unexpected about the gift of Christ’s body. The listeners ask how he can give them his flesh to eat. God redeems us in a way that is unexpected according to our way of understanding salvation. It was a scandal to think that the Messiah would be one who gives of himself to nourish others. We tend to think of God as someone who wants something from us, not as someone who gives, but such a vision is of a deity who is not autonomous, who needs our sacrifices.

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2. The life of faith begins from the gift of God, not from what we need to do, nor from our faults.

The truth, rather, is that our God is one who saves, who gives himself, who has much to offer us. This revelation of God as a generous Father, who gives, is difficult for us to comprehend. God is on our side. He feeds us even with his body. This causes us to live with gratitude and joy and we are called to recognize this mode of being of God in this Sunday’s feast. The life of faith finds in this gift of God our point of departure! Our point of departure is not what we need to do, or the faults we have committed. Sometimes our starting point involves doubts about ourselves, but the correct starting point is to realize our great dignity. How important we are for God! The Son of God gives himself over to us completely. What is more important, the person who eats, or that which is eaten? Certainly, he who eats. Jesus has chosen to place himself in this type of relationship with us.

 

3. We life in a culture anxious for self-satisfaction, self-gratification. Our faith calls us to live by Christ, to comprehend that he satisfies our every need, that we do not need to defend ourselves. The Eucharist reveals our immense dignity, who we are for God.

In our time, the anxiety and drive for self-gratification is all-prevalent. In a disordered way we seek satisfaction and compensations. Our faith, by contrast, calls us to live by this food, to live for Christ, to live according to this light, to be inebriated by this love. It is easy to see when someone lives by Christ because he is a person of serenity, someone who is not always seeking to defend his right to exist, who is not fixated with the infantile and disordered means of self-promotion that enslave so many. To live by Christ! He truly satisfies our hunger, he truly is real food. In the Sequence for Sunday, Christ is described as the bread of angels, the food of pilgrims, the banquet of the king. Every Sunday we are called to realize our dignity when we consume the Eucharist. It bestows light on who we are. We are one single thing with Christ, united with him. Just as a bride and groom become a single flesh and generate new life, so too the life in us is generated by Christ who loved us so much as to give himself for us. Just as Adam said to Eve, “Behold, flesh of my flesh”, so too Christ says to his Church (to each one of us), “You are my flesh to whom I give my life, dying on the cross and rising again so that I can love you and be your Lord.” Let us allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the Eucharist so that it might inspire and illuminate our lives, helping us to comprehend our true dignity.

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