The readings for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060621.cfm
You might not know it to look at me, but I like to eat.
Like most people, I have favorite foods, though I’m pretty partial to cheeseburgers and like many of us I’m blessed to have a choice of foods and enough to eat.
But even with all the choices we have, even with all the blessings we have and no matter how much we have, it doesn’t take too long until we are hungry again.
Throughout the history of the church, the Eucharist has been honored as the true banquet of the Lord.
In terms of physical hunger, the small wafer that we receive at communion isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as some of our favorite foods are.
But we come here because we are hungry for something more.
A hunger that mere mortal food can’t take away.
At this Holy Mass especially, we celebrate the great Solemnity of Corpus Christi, which is Latin for “the Body of Christ” that commemorates the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus, Himself.
Now there are disagreements among Christians about what the Eucharist really is.
Many Christians see the Eucharist merely as a sign or symbol of God’s love for us.
But as Catholics, we know that with a priest in Holy Mass through the power of the Holy Spirit, bread and wine become the real Body and real Blood of Christ - not just a sign - not just a symbol.
In the Eucharist, Jesus is made truly present to us - body, blood, soul and divinity.
We search for so many ways to fill ourselves up, but the Eucharist reminds us that it is really only in Jesus, and in sharing his Body and Blood, that our hunger - the one deep in our hearts that all of us are always longing to fill - will ultimately be satisfied.
Now when the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, making Jesus truly present - Jesus is with us - in a real and permanent way - and as the most important food we eat on our journey to everlasting life.
And that is why we come to Mass.
The most important people we have in our lives are those with whom we eat, and so it is - with the meal we share today.
But just as our favorite food in the finest restaurant can disappoint us, so, too, the meal we share here can disappoint - if we don’t approach it with the proper preparation by having a regular sacramental confession,
if we don’t approach it with the proper reverence,
and if we don’t receive it with the proper appreciation for the gift that it is and for what it means to us.
In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to us just as he gave himself on the Cross.
In the Eucharist, Jesus tells us that He loves us enough to keep his promise to be with us always in a visible, material and physical way.
And as awesome as the miracle of bread changing into the Body of Christ is - the Eucharist is not only about bread changing.
It’s about us, who receive the Eucharist changing as a result of receiving Him.
It is about us, receiving Jesus and living in such a way that we change the world we are a part of, for the better.
This becomes just another miracle of the Eucharist.
Not that bread and wine alone is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ,
but that consuming his flesh is meant to transform us so that we can transform our lives and the lives of those around us.
And this can’t be accomplished in the forty-five minutes we are at Mass or in the moment we receive Communion.
When we leave the altar carrying the Body of Christ within us,
we are commissioned to help change the world by loving as Jesus did - selflessly - heroically - even if it is only our little corner of the world.
And in the process of loving others, nourished by Jesus, fill that unsatisfied hunger deep within all of us.
What a miraculous and wonderful blessing and grace, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is and how fortunate we are when we receive Him worthily.
