Luke 9:11-17
Today’s Gospel Reading recounts the miraculous multiplication of the loaves. Jesus’ words and actions point to His own total self-donation in the Passion; a self-outpouring done expressly for us and for our salvation.
FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI
2019 [C]
The Feast of Corpus Christi – the Body and Blood of Christ – is not a nostalgic look back at a historical event that really happened two thousand years ago at the Last Supper. Rather, today we proclaim anew the ever present reality of Jesus living in our midst. He has not left us orphans but, instead, has willed to remain permanently with us.
Jesus said what He meant and meant what He said: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:56). Jesus made Himself our food to assimilate us to Himself, to make us live His life, to make us live in Him.
Christ Jesus perpetuates His real presence and His sacrifice in the Eucharist. Had we nothing but the Gospel itself, we only would have winsome recollections. But how very different our Christian reality is! In the Eucharist we find the same Jesus who Mary brought into the world and whom the shepherds found wrapped in swaddling clothes laying in a manger; whom Mary and Joseph nurtured as He grew their eyes; the same Jesus who called people to follow Him, who stirred minds, healed hearts and inspired the multitudes; who performed miracles; who for love of us sweat blood, was scourged and was put to death on the Cross; the same Jesus who rose again and appeared to His friends and in whose wounds Thomas placed his finger; who ascended into heaven and is now seated in glory for all eternity.
In the Eucharist Jesus is truly present with all His divinity and all His humanity, whole and entire in the Sacred Host – body and soul. He is living! He sees us, listens to us, and answers our prayers. Disguised as a traveler Jesus once taught the disciples of Emmaus and set their hearts ablaze with the fire of His love so, too, Jesus hidden under the Eucharistic veil enkindles our hearts, fires them with His love and inclines them ever more toward the fullness of life for which we have been made!
In the Eucharist Jesus waits for us to make our way to Him. Of course, it is we who need Him! Here on earth we never are closer to the Risen Lord Jesus than when we are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
