Saturday, June 05, 2010

 

SOLEMNITY, THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

JUNE 6, 2010
SOLEMNITY, THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

GENESIS 14:18-20
Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of
God Most High. He pronounced this blessing: Blessed be Abram by God
Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High
for putting your enemies into your clutches. And Abram gave him a
tenth of everything.

FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:23-26
For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you
is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,
and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, 'This is my
body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' And in the same
way, with the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant
in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.'
Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are
proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.

LUKE 9:11-17
But the crowds got to know and they went after him. He made them
welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured
those who were in need of healing. It was late afternoon when the
Twelve came up to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go
to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we
are in a lonely place here.' He replied, 'Give them something to eat
yourselves.' But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two
fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these
people.' For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his
disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty.' They did
so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the
two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them;
then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute
among the crowd. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the
scraps left over were collected they filled twelve baskets.

REFLECTION
Perhaps children find it difficult to get their heads around this
Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. A boy of three was intrigued by
the Communion rite and watched every move of the priest until he
finished wiping the chalice and ciboria at the end of the Mass. Then
the boy turned to his mother and said, "Mom, the priest has finished
doing the dishes. Can we go home now?"

Today's feast may also cause many adults to scratch their heads
wondering what it is all about. When this feast was originally
presented to us it had a twofold intention. First, it was intended to
focus on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Second, it was
to focus on the Real Presence of Jesus in the world. As we trace the
history of Eucharistic devotion we can see that we became over focused
on devotion to the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. It is only
in recent history that we have begun to move away from this lopsided
devotion, to move away from a purely individualistic Eucharistic piety
to a heal their communitarian understanding of Eucharist, to move away
from unquestioned mystery to a fuller understanding of this sacrament.

In the early Church for several centuries before we got distracted by
individual preoccupation with the Real Presence in the Blessed
Sacrament, Christians understood that the Real Presence was in the
People of God, in their brothers and sisters. It was for this reason
that St. Paul urged the early Christians to leave behind their former
way of life and enter into an entirely new kind of life. They did this
and their new life went against the culture of the time. It meant
sharing material goods and the subtle riches of faith, hope and
charity. This lasted up until about the fourth century, when there was
a change toward individual private piety and the magical focus on the
actions and words of the Mass.

After Vatican II, the Church in her teaching has been leading
Catholics back to St. Paul's ideal of what the Church should be. We
recognize that the Eucharist is not just about the transforming of the
bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is also about the
transforming of the world about us, into the Mystical Body of Christ.
We must not forget that the Exodus was a slave revolt by marginalized
people who had been driven into servitude under great oppression. The
Feast of the Passover with unleavened bread was instituted to
commemorate this event of a new beginning for the Israelites. We must
not forget that the unleavened bread of the Eucharist is a powerful
sign of the poor man's food and our breaking and sharing it is a call
to us to be on the side of the poor. This Eucharistic gathering is a
mirror held up to the world, a prototype of the solidarity, compassion
and common effort that is intended in God's call to be a person for
others. Just as God was involved in a conscience-raising campaign with
the Israelite people, so too must we raise the issues of injustice and
prejudice in our own community. Just as God is on the side of the poor
and oppressed, so too must we be on their side. Full communion with
God and others is incompatible with any sort of injustice or
exploitation. So, having received the Body and Blood of Christ during
the Mass, we should leave the Mass to bring about the transformation
of the world we live in.

There is an inextricable link between what we celebrate during mass
and social justice. Many of us when we think of the Body and Blood of
Christ we think only of the consecrated bread and wine. And on one
level, our thinking is true. If, however, our experience stops with
this understanding and goes no further, then we miss something that is
most significant, the need to love our neighbor. It is true, as that
the consecrated bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Jesus but
equally important so are we and our neighbor.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery, strength and healing of
- Rita P. Cuerva
- Alfonso Purugganan & Arnold Cabatingan
- Ely Lara
- Jessy
- Jo Marcelo
- Jun Lee
- Cesar Galang
- Luis Torres
… for the personal intentions of
- Titong V.
- Maricar
- Mariano Montemayor
- Josheil Dapo
- Andrew
- Mary Wong
… for good health:
- Jilbert Perez
- Margie Ponce de Leon
… for the eternal repose of the souls of
- Tan Liong Chiu
- Benedicto V. Venturina
Eternal rest grant unto them and may perpetual light shine upon them.
May they and all the dearly departed rest in peace.
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Luisita S. Itchon
- Birthday: Miguel Pizarro
- Birthday: Sandy Co
… for world peace and reconciliation.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers
and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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