"This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, or "Corpus Christi". Here are a few thoughts on this great Feast Day:
For all of us, there comes a last time for doing all the things that have become familiar to us during our lives. The last time that we see our family and friends, or the last time that we write a letter or an email, and there is a last time that we eat a meal with our family. Perhaps it is a mercy that most of us don’t know when that last time has arrived – when our “goodbyes” really are goodbyes. Even when a person is terminally ill, there is still a hope that they will once again feel the comfort of a human touch.
In the Gospel reading from St. Mark for the Feast of Corpus Christi (Year B), (Mark 14;12-16, 22-26) Jesus prepares for His last meal with his friends. He knows that His last moments are approaching. This was to be the last opportunity for Him to share with His followers. Preparations are carefully made; the last meal must be celebrated in peace, in order to savour the gift that will be offered. The gift is a surprise for the Apostles - Jesus literally gives Himself: “Take it, this is my body……. this is my blood…. I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus faced the darkness of His last few hours by gathering his friends and sharing with them the gift of Himself. After His resurrection they would gather to keep His memory alive, to hear again the stories that Jesus had told them in love, and to break the bread of life that would nourish them in their journey to the Kingdom. Down the ages, the Christian community has done this as an essential part of its life, and that is, in normal times, what do each day, and especially on Sundays.
The Eucharist (or the Holy Mass, as we have come to know it) is not a play that we come to watch. It is something that we come to DO. When we are able to, we gather as a consecrated people to DO something together. In the action of the Mass we hold the holy memory of Jesus, we share the bread that is broken, and we accept the cup that is held out to us. Week by week throughout the year we strengthen each other by our sharing and our faith, so that all our time is consecrated to the Lord. Until we reach the fullness of the Kingdom, when we hope to see the Lord face-to-face, the Holy Mass is sufficient for us.
We are all seeking God, and we all need the witness of each other’s love and faith. We are challenged to be the Body of Christ. Jesus shared Himself: He gave Himself away as a gift to us; He became bread for all who hunger and thirst for the presence of God. And the promise of the Gospel is that if we share God’s love with others, then we too will inherit the Kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of the world."
Deacon Mike Belt.
Apart, yet together. #ChurchAtHome
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