Corpus Christi Sunday 2009

Today is the Corpus Christi Sunday. The day when we honour the Real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most holy Sacrament of the alter. His self-giving to us in form of bread and wine in the Eucharist. Often we do not know the true meaning of the Eucharist or mass, hence we find it as a burdensome obligation every week and a boring exercise. ‘No music, no guitar, not lively.’ This is the common complaint.
Today I thought I can reflect with you about significance of the celebration of mass. In the sixth chapter of John, we read that on the shore of sea of Galilee, great number of people gathered around Jesus, and He preached to them at length. Once the preaching was over, the disciples say, let us send them away, our work is over, and let them find their own way. But Jesus said, ‘our work is not yet over, we need to feed them.’ And he fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish, to remind them how their ancestors were fed miraculously with manna, the food from heaven in the desert. That day they were fed with the word and with the bread. Great pre-figuration of the Eucharist.
And the next day, these people go in search of Jesus to the same place, where they were fed. But Jesus was not there. And then they come to know that he was on the other side of Galilee. They rush there. Looking at the crowd, Jesus says, ‘you are searching for me because you ate the bread, not because you saw my miracles or believed me.’ Then he goes on to give a long discourse on spiritual food, the food that gives them eternal life for which they need to seek. He begins by saying, John 6:27: “Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the son of man gives to you;” After a long discourse about it he ends up saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up o the last day.” Look at the words here. How precise they are. Unless you eat this and drink this you will not have this. So, eating his body or flesh and drinking his blood is a pre-requisite for eternal life.
Unfortunately, these words were hard to follow for many and they decide to leave him, without really finding out what really he meant and how is it possible. But only a handful remain with him to find out what he really meant and what really he is going to give. And as we read in the gospel today, on the evening of the Passover, which was celebrated, to remind them of the great liberation they had from bondage of Pharaoh through the sacrifice of the lamb, he the new Pascal lamb took the bread,(which earth has given and human hands have made) blessed it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body, which will be given up for you!” And the chalice (filled with fruit of the wine and work of human hands), “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
What actually was he doing there? We know that he was celebrating the first mass there. What is the meaning of the that mass he was instituting and the mass we celebrate even now? See, the next day he as a high priest is going to offer his own body and blood as a sacrifice and expiation for our sins and the sins of humanity once and for all. And when that sacrifice is made, his disciples are not going to be there. So he wants to make it present real to them now. As in the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, where people need to eat the flesh of the lamb that takes away their sins, and be sprinkled with the blood of the lamb for their cleansing, So he who is going to offer himself as an expiation putting an end to the sacrifices of bulls and lambs, making it present in the form of bread and wine. Thus showing them the way how they can eat his body and drink his blood and have eternal life.
So the Eucharist is making really present today the sacrifice which Jesus offered once and for all on the cross. By participating in that sacrifice and eating his flesh which he offered up for us and drinking his blood which he shed for us, we make the salvation which he gained for us, our own. We need to do this to have eternal life. This is Jesus’ will that we should eat his body and drink his blood to have life. Now, Jesus cannot say something and make it not possible. He cannot say that you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood to have eternal life, and does not do anything to make his body and blood present to us. He wanted his word to be present with us and so he gave us the scriptures, and so also he wanted his body and blood to be present with us, and so he gave us the Eucharist. The bread and wine is transformed into his body and blood and presented to us to eat and drink and have life. This is what mass is all about.
When we celebrate the Eucharist (the mass) every day, we are fed with both his word and his body. First we are fed with the word and then with his body and blood. It is a double feeding. Two course meal. We cannot accept one and reject the other. And as we don’t seek for variety in eating style, we need not necessarily seek variety in mass. And eating has never been boring for any of us although we have been eating all throughout our lives, three times a day. If it is so, then I do not know why Eucharist (the spiritual banquet) is boring, not interesting, and a burdensome obligation. It is a spiritual banquet where you eat the spiritual food. Eating should not be a boring thing. And secondly, we need to hunger for it. If we don’t eat one meal rats run in our stomachs. If we don’t attend one Sunday mass, do we feel that hunger? Rats running in our heart? Let us love the Eucharist, our spiritual food. Amen.