Reading 1
Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Gospel
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"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."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
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.
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.
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."
Reflection
Today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, often referred to as the Feast of Corpus Christi, celebrates the source and summit of our Faith: Jesus Christ present to us in the Holy Eucharist. Our readings remind us that God has been nourishing His people with Himself since the beginning of history, and that the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is fitting fulfillment of His ceaseless efforts to bring us together and to Himself. Until the end of time, Christ’s Body and Blood are food for our journey to Heaven and the most profound unity with God and neighbor that we can experience.
In the first reading, Moses declares that God fed His people with Manna “in order to show [that] not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.” Yes, our biological bodies depend on food, but this truth is a visible image of a deeper reality: our lives depend on God. In the Gospel, Jesus says: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” Thus, Christ is the Word of God on which we live. He brings to completion what Moses anticipated in Deuteronomy: living by the Word of the Lord is feeding on Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus speaks this truth directly: “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” Our Tradition has always held that Jesus was not speaking metaphorically. He truly gave us Himself to consume that we might live unto eternity.
Today’s second reading reminds us that the Holy Eucharist does not only spur us forward towards eternal life, but it also brings us together in unity. St. Paul says that to participate in the “cup of blessing” and the “bread that we break” is to participate in Christ—to be one with Him. When we unite with Jesus, who is whole and undivided, we are then united with all others in Him. “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
How beautiful that we have just ordained six new priests for our Diocese on the eve of this Solemnity. By God’s grace, these men, servants of the Holy Eucharist, will bring this essential nourishment to even more people throughout our region and further unite our five counties in Christ. Today, parishes all over the Diocese are also consecrating themselves to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, an initiative begun in February to draw us nearer to Jesus in our 65th anniversary year.
Please join me in spending a few extra minutes before the Holy Eucharist today, praying in thanksgiving for our new priests, our Diocese, and the unfathomable gift of Jesus’ True Presence.
Please be assured of my prayers for you before Our Lord, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
+ Bishop Schlert
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