The Holy Father on the Eucharist

"Without the Eucharist the Church simply would not exist. It is the Eucharist in fact that makes a human community a mystery of communion, able to bring God to the world and the world to God. The Holy Spirit, which transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, also transforms into members of the Body of Christ those who receive it with faith, so that the Church is truly the sacrament of the unity of men with God and of men with each other." ~Pope Benedict, Angelus of 6/26/11, Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Ave Maria!  I should label this post "Wordless Tuesday" because I have no words to share as I reflect upon the Holy Father's Angelus message of Sunday past, especially this excerpt.  No words, only wonder, sheer wonder along with unabated joy at the magnificent gift of our Lord Jesus Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. "Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore.  O make us love Thee more and more!  O make us love Thee more and more!"

My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ~John 6:55

Ave Maria!  Usually on Sundays I post a reading from one of the early church fathers relating to the gospel of the day.  Here is a sermon by St. Augustine on yesterday's gospel for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.  Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!


My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ~John 6:55

You see on God’s altar bread and a cup. That is what the evidence of your eyes tells you, but your faith requires you to believe that the bread is the body of Christ, the cup the blood of Christ. In these few words we can say perhaps all that faith demands.

Faith, however, seeks understanding; so you may now say to me: "You have told us what we have to believe, but explain it so that we can understand it, because it is quite possible for someone to think along these lines: We know from whom our Lord Jesus Christ took his flesh – it was from the Virgin Mary. As a baby, he was suckled, he was fed, he developed, he came to young man’s estate. He was slain on the cross, he was taken down from it, he was buried, he rose again on the third day. On the day of his own choosing, he ascended to heaven, taking his body with him; and it is from heaven that he will come to judge the living and the dead. But now that he is there, seated at the right hand of the Father, how can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is in the cup, how can that be his blood?"

These things, my friends, are called sacraments, because our eyes see in them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our understanding, its spiritual effect.

If, then, you want to know what the body of Christ is, you must listen to what the Apostle tells the faithful: Now you are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it.

If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord’s altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive.

You reply "Amen" to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear the words "The body of Christ" and you reply "Amen." Be, then, a member of Christ’s body, so that your "Amen" may accord with the truth.

Yes, but why all this in bread? Here let us not advance any ideas of our own, but listen to what the Apostle says over and over again when speaking of this sacrament: Because there is one loaf, we, though we are many, form one body.

Let your mind assimilate that and be glad, for there you will find unity, truth, piety, and love. He says, one loaf. And who is this one loaf? We, though we are many, form one body.

Now bear in mind that bread is not made of a single grain, but of many. Be, then, what you see, and receive what you are.

So much for what the Apostle says about the bread. As for the cup, what we have to believe is quite clear, although the Apostle does not mention it expressly.

Just as the unity of the faithful, which holy Scripture describes in the words: They were of one mind and heart in God, should be like the kneading together of many grains into one visible loaf, so with the wine.

Think how wine is made. Many grapes hang in a cluster, but their juice flows together into an indivisible liquid.

It was thus that Christ our Lord signified us, and his will that we should belong to him, when he hallowed the sacrament of our peace and unity on his altar.

Anyone, however, who receives this sacrament of unity and does not keep the bond of peace, does not receive it to his profit, but as a testimony against himself.

St. Augustine, 354-430 (Sermon 272: PL 38, 1246-1248)

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Ave Maria!  Joyful greetings to one and all on this glorious solemnity of what used to be called "Corpus Christi."  Some of us are old enough to remember the Eucharistic processions that the Church would hold on this feast to honor our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and some churches throughout the world today still keep this lovely tradition.  Children would scatter flowers as they walked ahead of the priest who carried Our Lord's Sacred Body in the monstrance, just as the little girl in this image is delightedly doing.  With what gleeful abandon she throws high her offering, as if to say, "For You, my Lord -- all for You!"  She reminds me of the poet's verse:

"Gladly do I give my life to thee,

not solemnly, not grudgingly,

But I would take my life

and fling it at thy feet --

and sing and sing --

Happy to bring thee this small thing."

What a perfect response to our Beloved Jesus who, over and over again, gives us the wondrous gift of Himself, body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Holy Eucharist!  "Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore.  O make us love Thee more and more!  O make us love Thee more and more!"

Cum Panis

Each of us who belong to the Church needs to leave the closed world of his individuality and accept the "companionship" of others who "break bread" with us. We must think not in terms of "me" but "we". That's why every day we pray "our" Father, "our" daily bread. Breaking down the barriers between us and our neighbours is the first prerequisite for entering the divine life to which we are called. We need to be liberated from all that imprisons us and isolates us: fear and mistrust towards others, greed and selfishness, unwillingness to run the risk of vulnerability to which we expose ourselves when we are open to love. ~Pope Benedict XVI, Homily of Corpus Christi, June 6, 2010

Our Holy Father makes it clear that the Eucharist cannot be lived in isolation. The refrain of one the popular songs in our church today begins with "We are companions on the journey." Companions are not just friends or buddies. The word companion comes from the Latin noun "panis", which means "bread", and the Latin preposition "com", which means "with". First and foremost, we are companions with Jesus Christ, who calls us His friends (Jn 15:14-15). The bread that we share with each other is His Body, which He gives us for the life of the world (Jn 6:51). In the Eucharist, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our friendship with Christ and our companionship with each other are united into one glorious whole, a sacrifice of love to the praise and glory of the Father, a living icon of the Holy Trinity. Alleluia!

Today's Solemnity: The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

You loved me from all eternity,
therefore you created me.
You loved me after you had made me,
therefore you became man for me.
You loved me after you became man for me,
therefore you lived and died for me.
You loved me after you had died for me,
therefore you rose again for me.
You loved me after you had risen for me,
therefore you went to prepare a place for me.
You loved me after you had gone to prepare a place for me,
therefore you came back to me.
You loved me after you came back to me,
therefore you desired to enter into me and be united to me.
This is the meaning of the Blessed Sacrament.
The mystery of love.
~Archbishop Alban Goodier

MY JESUS, FOREVER I ADORE YOU IN THE SACRAMENT OF YOUR LOVE!