The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 6, 2021

 

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ    June 6, 2021

          Thank YOU!   Two very important words.   Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.   We also call this Sacrament “Holy Communion” because we commune, we make community together, in sharing of the Body and Blood of Christ, sharing the consecrated bread and (hopefully soon) the consecrated wine. 

          Because this ritual is a mystery with many facets, we also have another name for Holy Communion, and that is “Eucharist”.   The word comes from the Greek, meaning ‘to give thanks.’  So every time we celebrate and receive Holy Communion we are involved in giving thanks, in saying “Thank You” to God.  And as I said at the beginning, “Thank You” are two very important words.

          Let us unpack this mystery a little further, turning to the Gospel for today, from the Gospel of St. Mark.

          The setting is the Last Supper: “While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, …”

          While they were eating.  Notice the setting.  After the year long pandemic, we should all know the importance and meaning of eating meals together, sharing fellowship, camaraderie, intimacy, as well as food.  I am so happy that I can again go out and enjoy a meal with fellow parishioners, at their home, at a restaurant, at the rectory.  The meal setting for this great Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is very important.  What we do here every Sunday is a ritual meal.

          Jesus assures His disciples of His real presence using a four part action: TAKE;   BLESS;   BREAK;   SHARE.

 “While they were eating, he took bread,…”  

 This was much much more than a utilitarian action of grabbing the loaf before his hungry apostles wolfed it down.  Rather Jesus taking the bread is a symbolic action of great meaning.  Bread was basic to the life of the common people.  It was their main food.  It was referred to as the staff of life.  It is what the common folk mostly ate, and it therefore represented their lives, their very selves.

          In taking the bread Jesus is really taking hold of His life.  Jesus is summing up all that He is about, all that He means, all who He is. 

          And what does Jesus do with His life?  Does He moan and complain and carry on?  He had every right to.  In a few verses left out of our reading Judas had just gone off to betray Jesus.  He knew what was in store for Him, that he would be betrayed, falsely condemned, abandoned by all His friends, tortured and unjustly executed.   Jesus had good reason to moan and groan and complain about His life.  

          But Jesus doesn’t.  Instead, Jesus “said the blessing”.  This “blessing” was the typical Jewish meal blessing, much like many of us grew up reciting “bless us O Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ Our Lord.  AMEN”

          But the meal blessing Jesus said is very similar to what the priest says, sometimes out loud but often to himself, over the gift of bread and wine at Mass. “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you;”  That is straight from the meal prayer, or blessing, that Jesus said when He had taken the bread which represented His life.  

          Instead of complaining about His life, Jesus blesses God and gives thanks to God the Father for His love.  

Jesus is accepting His fate in accordance with God’s Will for Him, out of loving trust in the Father.  In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Jesus firmly believes the Father loves Him intensely, and Jesus trusts God His Father.

          Having gathered up His life in taking the bread, and blessing it by giving thanks to the Father for His life, Jesus breaks the bread.  This breaking foreshadows that His own life would be broken on the Cross in a few short hours.

          Then Jesus shared the bread, just as His life would be shared with all of us by His death on the Cross.  "Take it; this is my body." Jesus told the Apostles, and Jesus tells us today.

          Jesus takes the bread as a symbol of gathering His life, He blesses the bread and gives thanks for His life, Jesus breaks the bread as He will be broken open on the Cross, and shares the bread with His disciples, and Jesus shares Himself with us in the Sacrament of Holy Communion right here in a few minutes.  Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and shares.

          This 4 part action demands a response on our part.  That is what we are doing here in church right now.

          First, we gather our lives: the good, the bad, the boring, the tedious, the thrilling, the painful, the parts that make us proud and the parts that make us ashamed, the accidents, the choices, the coincidences, all of it.  We gather it and we do what Jesus did, we give thanks for all of it.  It is all God’s gift.  We gather together as one body and we give thanks for our lives.  We do “eucharist”, or “thanksgiving.”

          We break ourselves open to let in the Holy Spirit, letting down our defenses, our false pride, our tough guy exterior to humbly ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit to strengthen and guide us, and to give us the gifts we need: patience, understanding with others, fortitude, honesty, generosity, chastity, compassion, and all the others.

          Then we are sent out at the end of Mass to share what we have found, to proclaim in our actions and in our words the Good News of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. 

          We take, bless, break open and share.  That is the meaning of Eucharist, or Holy Communion.
          You see, Eucharist is not a noun, but a verb.  It must be put into action.  It must be lived out.  It is not something so much to look at and adore, but to receive and to do, to live out as members of the same Body of Christ that we have received.  And it all starts by giving thanks.  

AMEN.