Solemnity of Body & Blood of Christ (Cycle C, Year II)
Community Word: The Holy Spirit teaches those who keep the word of God.
Theme: We keep the word of God when we share our blessings, remembering Jesus in the Eucharist.
Promise: “Yours is power in the day of your birth.” (Ps 110:3a)
Reflection:
There were five thousand tired and hungry people in a deserted place. To feed them, Jesus took five loaves and two fish, the only provisions available, looked up to heaven, said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to His disciples to feed the crowd. When all were satisfied, 12 wicker baskets of leftovers were collected, (Luke 9:11-17).
The Church chose the above gospel story for this Sunday’s Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ to emphasize the sign of God’s generous care and provision for His people. Jesus gives us more than we need for ourselves, so that we may have enough left over to share with others, especially those in need. The multiplication of the loaves and fish is an enduring image of the Eucharist. Jesus wanted to use this humble gift of a few loaves and fishes to feed a multitude. Logic and human reason will normally tell us, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish,” (Lk 9:13b), how can we feed such a multitude? Just as His disciples must have been thinking. But Jesus insists that even meager provision such as these, with faith and generosity, can be stretched to the limit to feed many. And it did.
The Eucharist is essentially, and of its very nature, a community action in which every Catholic Christian present is expected to be an active participant. We are identified with the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, and this should be expressed not only through a one-to-one relationship with Him, but in a community relationship, in which Christ is present in all Christian disciples. There is no place in Christianity for individualism, we go to God with and through the people around us. We should see each other’s wounds, recognize a brother in someone in need, and not be indifferent to the suffering of others. As Jesus says in the gospel of John, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another,” (Jn 13:35).
St. John Chrysostom asks… “Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple, clad in silk, only then to neglect Him outside where He suffers cold and nakedness. He who said: ‘This is my body’ is the same One who said: ‘You saw Me hungry and you gave Me no food’, and ‘Whatever you did to the least of My brothers you did also to Me. What good is it, if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices, when He is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying His hunger, and then with what is left, you may adorn the altar as well.” These words effectively remind us of our duty to make the Eucharist the place where the last are the first in the mind and attention of our BLD community, where Christ Himself, through our generous gifts to the last, the least, and the lost, we may experience the miracle of the “multiplication of the loaves.”
As we actively and fervently participate in every celebration of the Eucharist, we are nourished to become the living Body and Blood of Jesus, making us no longer divided but one in Him, “ready to claim our citizenship in heaven and bring others closer to God” by the power the Lord had given us, on the day we were born, “Yours is power in the day of your birth.” (Ps 110:3a).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, You are the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation. You nourish and sustain us with Your very own presence and life. May we always hunger for You and be satisfied in You alone. Amen
Reflection Questions:
1. Does your participation in the celebrations of the Eucharist transform you into a person of gratitude, kindness, justice and charity?
2. In what way does the Eucharist symbolize the life you are living? Is the Eucharist giving direction to your life?
This Week’s Daily Mass Reading Guide:
May 29, 2016 (Sun) Gn 14:18-20/Ps 110:1,2,3,4/1Cor 11:23-26/Lk 9:11-17
May 30, 2016 (Mon) 2 Pt 1:2-7/Ps 91:1-2,14-15,15-16/Mk 12:1-12
May 31, 2016 (Tue) Zep 3:14-18/Is 12:2-3,4,5-6/Lk 1:39-56
June 1, 2016 (Wed) 2 Tm 1:1-3,6-12/Ps 123:1-2,2/Mk 12:18-27
June 2, 2016 (Thu) 2 Tm 2:8-15/Ps 25:4-5,8-9,10,14/Mk 12:28-34
June 3, 2016 (Fri) Ez 34:11-16/Ps 23:1-3,3-4,5,6/Rom 5:5-11/Lk 15:3-7
June 4, 2016 (Sat) Is 61:9-11/ 1Sm 2:14-5,6-7,8/Lk 2:41-51
“Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ. Read your Bible daily!”
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