Rev. Fr. Claudius UWAOMA ISch.

 

​Dear brothers and sisters, today’s solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ celebrates the Lord’s gift of Himself to us as our spiritual food and drink, as sacrament. Holy Thursday, as we know, commemorates this great gift, being the day it was instituted at the Last Supper. But Holy Thursday celebrates part of the Holy Triduum, a time of soberness, during which the minds of the faithful are occupied with thoughts of the Lord's Passion.

Moreover, so many other milestones (Chrism Mass, the institution of the Priesthood etc.) take place on this same day so that the principal event (the institution of the Eucharist) is almost lost sight of. This is the reason for the introduction, in the 13th century, of the new feast that celebrates this precious gift, Corpus Christi.

 

Why this gift? ​Jesus gave us the gift of the shedding of His blood for our ransom and for our purification. That the memory of so great a gift of love would abide with us forever and also to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful, Jesus left us His Body and Blood as food and drink; as a perpetual memorial of His Passion, to be received in the form of bread and wine.

 

Reflecting on the richness of this living and life-giving bread, the angelic doctor, St Thomas Aquinas says that nothing could be more precious, nothing more wonderful than this banquet! He calls it a mystery of love beyond all imagination. It is not the meat of rams and calves offered as in the Old Testament. At this meal Christ Himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. Bread is changed into His flesh and wine into His blood. Man cannot understand this. Yet a lively faith affirms that a change, which is outside the natural course of things, takes place.

No other sacrament has greater healing power because it purges sins away, increases virtues and nourishes the soul with spiritual gifts. Would that every Christian grasps and appreciates the deep treasure we have, and we receive in the Body and Blood of Christ!

 

We do not receive this food of the angels just to be closer to Jesus or to take advantage of His visit to ask Him for favours. In receiving the Eucharistic meal, we want to identify ourselves with Christ, to offer ourselves to Him so that He may keep living in us, suffering in us, giving Himself and rising again in us. We receive this most precious and wonderful sacrament because we want to encounter Jesus (cf. John 12, 21), we want to know Him and experience the power of His resurrection (cf. Phil. 3, 10), we want to be transformed into Him whom we receive.

Transformation into the person of Christ, to become what I eat is not a magical thing. It is not accomplished just by “eating Jesus” often. To be sure, when received by the wicked the result of the Holy Communion is death. And so, to relish its transforming effect in us, it must be received in faith, and we must allow ourselves to be transformed by it. We must receive it in accordance with the Church’s traditions.

Above all, we must cultivate a lovely and lively relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist, spending time with Him in adoration that we may experience what Bishop Leon Toups calls the radiation therapy, becoming what I gaze on.

 

Do I often gaze at the Eucharist in adoration that I may become what I gaze on, radiation therapy? Do I receive Jesus in the Eucharist, well prepared, that I may become what I eat? May Jesus, the Good Shepherd and true bread, have mercy on us, feed us, guard us, and grant that we may find happiness in the land of the living. Amen.