“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55-56).
Last week in his homily, Father Paul explained how the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity can best be understood as a celebration of the fact that God has so much love that He exists as a Trinity of persons and desires to always be in relationship with us. God, Father Paul reminded us, is love and exists always as a relationship of three persons within Himself and is always in relationship with us. Ultimately, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, he said, was celebrated to help us understand how much God loves us and how much He desires to be in relationship with us—all the time.
It is not easy to explain or understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity. In some ways the Solemnity of the Trinity is best explained by the Solemnity that we celebrate today—the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The Body and Blood of Christ, given to us in every Mass, makes real God’s love for us and shows us how He desires to be present in our lives. In the Eucharist, God the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, gives us the Body and Blood of His Son that He may abide within us and we might know His constant love for us. God wishes to live so closely in relationship with us that He allows us to eat the Body and Blood of His only Son so that He might actually dwell within us and we might form the deepest possible relationship with Him. As Jesus comes to dwell within us, He desires that we know that He is always with us. He also asks that He might use us as His witnesses in the world so that He might show His continuing love for others through the good works of those in whom He has chosen to dwell. Through the Eucharist, Jesus asks us to allow Him to make us like Him, so that we may make him present to others in need. When St. Augustine used to give out the Eucharist at the Sunday Mass, he would hold up the host to those who were to receive it and say: “Christian, receive what you are to become, the Body of Christ.” Each Christian is invited, when she or he receives the Eucharist, to allow Christ to have such an influence upon him or her that each one becomes more like Him.
The Gospel reading that we hear proclaimed today at Mass is one of the most beautiful explanations about how much God loves us and how He desires to live with us for all eternity. In the Eucharist, Christ gives us His real flesh and blood to eat and drink that He might be so close to us that He dwells within us. This gift is given to us by the only Son of God so that He might give us eternal life. Jesus says everything He can to help us understand how important it is that we allow Him to get that close to us. He states: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” It would be impossible for Him to say it any clearer. The Eucharist is our invitation to relationship with God in the three persons of the Holy Trinity. To enter into that relationship, the Eucharist is the door—it is Christ.
The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ provides us with a beautiful opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with what a precious gift the Eucharist is. Every Sunday Eucharist is an invitation to relationship with the living God who desires to dwell within us. When we receive Christ’s Body and Blood we are invited to allow Him to mould us so that we might become more like Him. After Mass we are sent into the world to share His love with our brothers and sisters. In the Eucharist He gives us His pledge that the eternal life that He calls us to can begin the moment we receive Him into our hearts through the gift of the Eucharist that He has given us in order that He might always be relationship with us.
One of the beautiful ways in which we recognize Christ’s unconditional love for the Church, and for each of us, is through His presence in the tabernacles of our Churches. In the reserved Blessed Sacrament, Christ announces to us that He is always present and available to us. The beautiful practice of Eucharistic Adoration allows us to come before Christ and be in His presence with our joys and sorrows for a period of time. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, there will be a time of adoration in the Church this Sunday following the 11:15 a.m. Mass until 2:00 p.m. This is also a good time to be reminded that there is adoration from Monday to Friday in our Centre Chapel. This takes place Monday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m..
On this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ let us ask God the Father for the grace that we might always recognize the true presence of His Son in the Eucharist and that we might always draw closer to Him through It. Let us also continue to pray for one another.
Fr. Michael
Pastor—St. Peters Parish- Toronto
