Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you love your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

Loving another person is not based on whether that person is deserving of love, but on God's command to me to love as God has loved me. Sometimes we withhold our love for selfish reason: to punish the other person or to show them how much they have hurt us. Who suffers? In the end, we do, because we separate ourselves from God more than from the other. When we withhold love we restrict our opening to God's love. We are telling God to treat us in the same way. Is that really what we want?

 

Homily Feast of Corpus Christi Year A

 

Reading 1: God prefigured and foreshadowed the gift of his Body and Blood by the lesser gift of manna to feed the Israelites in the desert. Moses reminded the people toward the end of their journey that the gift of manna was given to them, not just to feed their bodies, but to remind them of several things.

 

1)   Through their forty year journey in the desert, God directed their journey to test whether they would keep his commandments and thus enter into the Promised Land. 2) They were to remember that bread is important to live physically, but God’s word and obedience to it is necessary to live eternally. 3) They were not to forget what God had done for them.

 

What is the application for us? Our life journey is to test our acceptance and commitment to God. This will determine whether we will be with God or not in eternity. This test is based on the acceptance of and the embracing of the word of God as our way of life. Finally, like the Israelites, this realization that we must not forget what God has done for us, must be recalled to mind and celebrated in thanksgiving.

 

Reading 2: The bread and wine are changed, transformed radically and substantially into the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus, when we partake, we partake not in bread and wine but the very Body and Blood of Christ. Our oneness with Christ in the Eucharist also signifies our oneness with each other because of the Eucharist.

 

How conscious are we of each of these reality? God dwells in me and I in God. Mystery of faith beyond reason! What is happening after Communion during those moments of intimacy with Jesus? How conscious are we when we leave the Church of this presence and oneness with God? Because it is the same Jesus in me as in you, by his presence we are united as brothers and sisters. How can I choose to sin against another, if I am conscious of this mystery? How can I choose to say or think negative against another, who also receive Jesus in Eucharist? What is our disposition after Communion?

 

Gospel: The focus of the Gospel message is that to eat the Body and Blood of Christ is not a symbolic gesture. In faith, we are consuming the real Body and Blood of Jesus. To eat his Body is to have eternal life. Human beings have looked for the fountain of youth. This is the fountain of life that exists after physical death. Everyone desires to live forever. True life is not physical life, which is here today and gone tomorrow, but divine life of God which is eternal.

 

How much clearer can Jesus be? Unless you eat my Body and drink my Blood you will not have eternal life. He is talking about an internal, invisible reality.

 

The Pew Research Center a few years ago did a survey of Catholics concerning their belief in the Eucharist. They discovered that only one-third of Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. From observing over the years how people approach the Eucharist and what they do afterwards, I tend to believe that this statistic is accurate, unfortunately.

 

Am I complacent or attentive when I receive the Eucharist? Do I approach the moment of Communion as a matter of fact or out of routine? Or do I realize how unworthy I am to receive the God of Gods the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, True God and True Man into this sinful body?  Am I overwhelmed each time I receive, reflecting on the words I said prior: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

 

Approach in awe and wonder and celebrate in thanksgiving the love of God shown us in such marvelous ways.

 

 

 “I think love – deep human love, does not know death… Real love says, ‘Forever.’ Love will always reach out toward the eternal. Love comes from that place within us where death cannot enter. Love does not accept the limits of hours, days, weeks, months, years, or centuries. Love is not willing to be imprisoned by time.” (Henri Nouwen)

This is a reflection of what is found in the Song of Songs: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For Love is strong as Death, longing is fierce as Sheol. Its arrows are arrows of fire, flames of the divine. Deep waters cannot quench love nor rivers sweep it away. Were one to offer all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly despised." (8:6-7) If this is true of real human love, how much is it true of the love between a person and God. 

Then we have the teaching of St. Paul. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:36-37) How powerful is true love!

 Feast of Corpus Christi   Gospel A

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." 

· In talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus in Jn 4 said he would give her living water and again in Jn 7:37 Jesus invited all those who thirst to come to him and he would give them living water. What is this living water? The gift of the Spirit. Now, he says he is the living bread. 

· What does “living water” do and what does “living bread” do? What is the connection between our physical needs and our spiritual needs?

· He says that he is the living bread that came down from heaven. What would this remind the Jews of? The Manna in the desert; God’s providence.  What is the connection between God providing for his people in the desert and God providing for us today?

·    We eat in order to sustain physical life. Jesus feeds us with his Body and Blood to sustain our life with God, not just for the moment but for eternity.

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?" 

· On first take they thought he was talking about cannibalism.  Because of their dietary laws, the Jews would only eat clean “flesh” not anything considered to be unclean according to the Law.  And definitely no faithful Jew would think of eating human flesh.

·    The fact that they quarreled among themselves indicates that some accepted this saying and others did not.

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. 

· Anytime Jesus uses the phrase “Amen, amen,” he is making a statement that is absolutely true.

· Do we approach the Eucharist with this understanding?

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. 

· Notice Jesus doesn’t try to explain what he means. If we believe in him, we will believe in his words, no matter if we don’t understand. Faith is primarily an assent to a person.

· How conscious are we of the union and intimacy between Jesus and ourselves, when we receive him in Communion?

·    He makes himself very clear by saying “my flesh is true food….blood…true drink.” It is not a symbol but the real body and blood of Jesus.

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 great difference between the manna and the Body and Blood of Jesus is that the former fed only the body for a short period; while the later brings spiritual nourishment at the deepest level.

· What is our understanding of Eucharist? What is our experience of Eucharist?

· The primary focus of the Eucharist is the reception for spiritual nourishment. The secondary focus is adoration. Sometimes people reverse the intention of Jesus.

 "Of one thing I am sure. Complaining is self-perpetuating and counterproductive. Whenever I express my complaints in the hope of evoking pity and receiving the satisfaction I so much desire, the result is always the opposite of what I tried to get. A complainer is hard to live with, and very few people know how to respond to the complaints made by a self-rejecting person. The tragedy is that, often, the complaint, once expressed, leads to that which is most feared: further rejection. . . . Joy and resentment cannot coexist." (Henri Nouwen)

How often we fall into the trap of complaining about different things or different people. It neither builds them or us up. No one enjoys being around a complainer. Instead of complaining, which no one wants to hear, it would be better for us to find something positive and upbuilding to say or to say nothing. For some of us this will be initially difficult, because of our previous negative habit. But in time our outlook will change and so will the response of others to us. The principle we are to follow is: Do nothing to sadden the Holy Spirit.

 

"Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you." (Ps 116:7) 

 

How often do we take time to reflect on the goodness of God to us? His goodness never ceases from the rising of the sun to its setting each day. Does our gratitude have the same response? What will our day be like, if we were conscious of the goodness of God and of our desire to respond to his goodness? Doing so will not interfere with our daily routine of life, but will enrich it. Try today to be more attentive to the little ways God shows his goodness and to be attentive to responding to his goodness. His goodness is a grace. Our response is a grace.

 

 

 “God will give us whatever we want, asking in prayer what we truly want, not what we say we want or even think we want. God listens to the heart, not to the lips. He knows, too, how limited is our understanding and knowledge. He sees our truest desires and knows how they can best be fulfilled. And this is what He grants.” (Basil Pennington)

 No one wants to burn in the fires of hell. We all want to ultimately be happy and in eternal peace. This desire is imbedded in us from the time we are born. God created us to be fulfilled only in him. When we pray, though what we pray for may not resonate with this deeper desire, God in his love will give that which will enable us to reach our fulfillment. Isn’t that what St. James means when he says we need to pray according to the will of God for us. His will is our ultimate happiness.