The reflections for Sundays and Solemnities is an activity of Society of St Paul, India
A Reflection by:
Fr Joe Eruppakkatt, SSP,
SOCIETY OF ST PAUL.
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Today’s celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ, is the feast of the very center and heart of our church, the center and heart of our faith, and the center and heart of our community, the center and heart of the lives of each of us — Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Some of us find it difficult to believe that bread and wine can change into the Body and Blood of Jesus.
We don’t see any change in the bread or wine.
There is no difference in the taste; the bread still tastes like bread and the wine still tastes like wine.
It is going against logic to say that the bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Jesus despite no change in appearance.
As Paul says, in the Christian life we go by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7).
We need to be humble and open to God, performing a miracle every day at the altars around the world, the miracle of the Eucharist.
For that we need to be humble enough to add faith to our intellect and reason
There is a beautiful chant, “Trust, surrender, believe, receive.”
Add faith to your reasoning and receive the love of God for you!
The Eucharist is the gift of God’s love for you.
Tell Jesus that you believe he is really present in the Blessed Sacrament and gradually grow from merely believing, to loving Jesus, and being loved by Jesus.
Throughout the two millennia of Christian history, many Eucharistic Miracles have occurred in various parts of the world and they have been authenticated by the Church.
I had the privilege to visit a Church in Lanciano, Italy where a Eucharistic miracle occurred in 700 AD.
It is said that a monk was afraid that he was losing his vocation.
One day as he was celebrating the Eucharist, during the consecration the host turned into flesh and the wine turned into blood.
Even after over 1300 years, we can still see the flesh in a monstrance and the blood in a glass chalice which are exposed for public worship every day.
Another miracle occurred in the year 1263.
A priest from Prague was celebrating Mass at a place called Bolsena, 70 miles north of Rome.
As he raised the host during the consecration, the bread turned into flesh and began to bleed.
The drops of blood fell onto the small white cloth on the altar, called the corporal.
The following year, in 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus, that is today’s feast of Corpus Christi.
Jesus comes to us in every Mass under the form of bread and wine.
The Eucharist is a celebration of the love of Jesus for us, his blood shed for us in love and his body scourged, crowned with thorns and crucified for us.
The wine poured and the bread broken is the love of Jesus for us.
Think of how precious a moment in our Mass it is when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion.
When we receive Jesus, Jesus is in us and we are with Jesus.
Remember the words of the consecration of every Mass recalling Jesus giving himself for us, “This is my Body which will be given up for you…. This is the cup of my blood. It will be shed for you…”
May Jesus in the Eucharist always be the very center and heart of our church, the center and heart of our faith, the center and heart of our family and community, and the center and heart of the lives of each of us.
O Sacrament most holy,
O Sacrament divine,
All praise and all thanksgiving
Be every moment thine.