(Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ)

Community Word: The Holy Spirit empowers us to make disciples of all nations.

Theme:     We are empowered by the Holy Spirit when we partake of Christ’s body and blood in the Holy Eucharist.

Promise: “…whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6:58b)

Reflection
In our present depersonalized society, there persists a deep longing in our hearts for intimacy.  We suffer from a sense of absence where there should have been reassuring presence.  We hunger and thirst for companionship, love, concern, affirmation, mercy, and respect.  We all have that basic hunger to be accepted as we are.  Because we are in the world, acceptance comes in the form of being relevant, spectacular, and powerful.  We want to be appreciated by people and therefore we make productivity the yardstick of our work and even of our ministry.  We want to be noticed, so we strive to be knowledgeable about the biggest box office hits, movie stars, fastest selling cars and gadgets, record-breaking athletes.

We come to believe that no good can come from powerlessness.  So we struggle for power in its many forms: money, connections, fame, intellectual ability, skills that give us some sense of security and control and strengthen our illusion that life is ours to dispose of.  (The Selfless Way of Christ by Henri Nouwen)

In the Gospel reading, Jesus offers us another way; not a life of being relevant, spectacular or powerful in the eyes of the world; but a life lived in His Spirit – serene, satisfying, radiant.  But this life in the Spirit needs a constant conversion of heart and a commitment to acquiring a fresh, spiritual way of thinking (Eph 4:23).  It also calls for the cultivation of those virtues that enable us to grow in holiness and to bear spiritual fruit.  It needs to direct our every thought, word, and action to the truth of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit may renew our minds according to the mind of Christ.

We are constantly reminded that we can develop this new life with God in prayer as God by His very nature speaks, hears, and replies.  We need also to have that daily discipline of meditation on the Word of God that we can be formed into living Christ as the Word descends from our minds to our hearts and there find a dwelling place.

In the Eucharist, Jesus can help us to live the life that He is offering. This life is not of the world; where we hunger to be relevant, to be spectacular, and to be powerful.  But we need first to confess our sins to the priest as the first step in our conversion and for a closer intimacy with Jesus; which finds completion in the Eucharistic celebration. (CFC p. 442)

In the Eucharist, as we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ worthily without any mortal sin, Jesus fills the deepest hungers of our hearts. According to the Catechism for Filipino Catholics, the basic hungers and the way the Eucharist fills these hungers are:

1.Love and acceptance – In the Eucharist, Christ comes to each of us with His total acceptance and self-giving love.  Christ who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal 2:20), calls each of us into intimate communion with Him, strengthening our inner security and personal self-acceptance.

2.Understanding – especially from loved ones.  Such understanding we find ultimately only in Jesus Christ, who alone knows us perfectly from within.  As we experience of being “understood by Jesus”, then we are challenged to reach out to others to understand them beyond our own prejudices and limitations.

3.Clear purpose in life –  The Eucharist gives meaning and value to all our actions, pains and sufferings, because we can offer them together with Christ’s own self-offering, as members of His own Body.

4.Justice and Peace – The Eucharist is the sacrament of God’s Universal Love.  There are no distinctions around the Table of the Lord; Christ died and rose from the dead for all, with no exceptions!  Sharing the Bread of Life, then, relates each communicant to every other son/daughter of the Father, even with – following Christ’s example – a “love preference for the poor”. There is a close connection between the Mass and social justice.  Filipino Catholics are called to a radical conversion, based on the formation of a social conscience, inspiring a spirituality of social transformation, which fosters social justice and peace, by means of active non-violence. ( CFC p. 424 )

If we persevere in receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus without any mortal sin, allowing Him to transform us in His likeness, we draw closer and become more intimate with Him.  As we become intimate with Christ, we can then love and accept others without conditions.  We can be more humble, understanding, caring, and forgiving of others.  We can have that blessed assurance that our present sufferings are nothing compared to the glory that is set before us (Rm 8:18).  We will be more helpful to the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the oppressed, and the marginalized.  We can then say as St. Paul:  “Yet I live no longer, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:19a).  As we witness the life of Jesus in our words and actions, then we can be a ‘living Christ” to others.

Reflection Questions:
1.What kind of transformation have I undergone in my frequent and worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist?

2.What difficulties do I encounter in being a “living Christ” to others?

This Week’s Daily Mass Reading Guide:
June 22, 2014 (Sun)    Ex 8:2-3,14-16/Ps 147:12-13,14-15,19-20/1Cor 10:16-17/Jn 6:51-58
June 23, 2014 (Mon)    2Kgs 17:5-8,13-15,18/Ps 60:3,4-5,12-13/Mt 7:1-5
June 24, 2014 (Tues)   Is 49:1-6/Ps 139:1-3,13-14,14-15/Acts 13:22-26/Lk 1:57-66,80
June 25, 2014 (Wed)   2Kgs 22:8-13;23:1-3/Ps 119:33,34,36,37,40/Mt 7:15-20
June 26, 2014 (Thur)   2Kgs 24:8,17/Ps 79:1-2,3-5,8,9/Mt 7:21-29
June 27, 2014 (Fri)      Dt 7:6-11/Ps 103:1-2,3-4,6-7,8,10/1Jn 4:7-16/Mt 11:25-30
June 28, 2014 (Sat)    Lam 2:2,10-14,18-19/Ps 74:1-2,3-5,6-7,20-21/Mt 8:5-17

“Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ.  Read your Bible daily!”

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