Sunday, June 2, 2002
Body & Blood of Christ
1st Reading: Dt 8:2-3, 14-16
Moses said to the people, "Remember how Yahweh, your God, brought
you through the desert for forty years. He humbled you, to test you and
know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or
not. He made you experience want, he made you experience hunger, but he
gave you manna to eat which neither you nor your fathers had known, to
show you that man lives not on bread alone, but that all that proceeds
from the mouth of God is life for man.
Then do not let your heart become proud and do not forget Yahweh, your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. It
is he who has led you across this great and terrible desert, full of fiery
serpents and scorpions, an arid land where there is no water. But for
you he made water gush forth from the hardest rock. And he fed you in
the desert with manna which your fathers did not know."
2nd Reading: 1 Cor 10:16-17
Brothers
and sisters, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion
with the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a communion
with the body of Christ? The bread is one, and so we, though many, form
one body, sharing the one bread.
Gospel: Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds, "I am the living bread which has come
from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread I
shall give is my flesh and I will give it for the life of the world."
The Jews were arguing among themselves, "How can this man give us
flesh to eat?"So Jesus replied, "Truly, I say to you, if you
do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood live with eternal
life and I will raise him up on the last day.
My flesh is really food and my blood is drink. Those who eat my flesh
and drink my blood, live in me and I in them. Just as the Father, who
is life, sent me and I have life from the Father, so whoever eats me will
have life from me. This is the bread which came from heaven; unlike that
of your ancestors, who ate and later died. Those who eat this bread will
live forever."
Commentary
Jesus gives us his body and blood in the form of bread and wine in the
celebration of the eucharist. And we receive him in communion. But what
happens to Christ's body and blood? Do the bread and wine of his sacramental
presence just get digested in and excreted by our system?
We say "Amen" as we receive his body; we accept to let him take
flesh in us, that we be his body and blood in the world. Every Christian
who receives communion also accepts the invitation to communicate the
Lord to others. From his sacramental presence in the form of bread and
wine, we become the living "sacrament" of his love in the world.
We become "the bread" and "the wine" for our sisters
and brothers as they share in our daily life.