Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It is no surprise then that our readings focus on sacrifice and blood offerings, both in the Old and New Testament. You see, in the Old Testament, the offerings were frequently by the Levitical Priests, both for their own sins as well as for those of the people. These were animal blood offerings that were made to atone for those sins. The animals sacrificed were those found to be mostly without blemish, yet these offerings were far from perfect, and so they had to be repeated. It was not until Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for our sake that a truly perfect offering was made, one that would not need to be repeated, because it fulfilled what was needed to truly atone for our sins – past, present, and future.
In our Lord Jesus Christ was found the only truly perfect sacrifice, one who had never known sin, and yet was obedient to the Father to the point of giving Himself up to become the one to take on all the punishment for our sins and who would suffer and die for our sake. He did this out of love for us, and complete love and obedience to the Father. When Jesus proclaimed to His disciples the nature of the sacrifice that He would make, they did not yet fully understand. Nor were they able to grasp Jesus’ words when He explained to them that unless they partook of His body and blood that were about to be sacrificed, they would not have life within them. The effect of His words was so profound and disturbing to many of those gathered there that after His proclamation only the twelve remained out of what had been almost one hundred followers, many of whom had been with him for years. Yet, this is the nature of the Eucharist, and there is no glossing over it. When we receive what still appear to be bread and wine after they have been consecrated, we are actually consuming His precious body and blood, so that we too may have life within us. This was our Lord’s command, that when we gather, we break the bread and pass the cup, and so partake of His offering of Himself, and be filled with His mystical body. You see we already know how to satisfy the food needs of our physical bodies, but that is only a fraction of who we are. The flesh that we are now robed in will pass away, and what will be left is the spirit. This is the lion’s share of what we were created as. Yet it requires care, just like our physical bodies, and if we do not nourish our spirit, we will be weak indeed, and left open to many ailments that plague a weakened spirit. The nourishment that our Lord provides is our defense. It is the best of food to keep us truly strong in Him. It bonds us to Him, because He is then within us, and stays within us to keep us strengthened. We receive life in the spirit through Him, and the graces that come with His presence within our own.
Have you ever walked by your refrigerator and reflexively opened it up, just to look inside to see what is there? You might not even have been particularly hungry when you did this, you just sensed that something was perhaps missing. Perhaps this was due to boredom, or not getting enough of a particular food in your diet, but whatever it was caused you to reach out and look for something to perhaps satisfy a physical craving. It is not so different with our spiritual bodies; they too will let us know when they have needs that are not being met. It is then up to us to meet that need, not with a trip to the fridge, but with the things that draw us near to our Lord to be strengthened. This is often through prayer, through time spent with His word, but it is most definitely satiated with His most precious body and blood in the form of the Eucharist that we still can receive to this day from those to whom the authority to consecrate the bread and the wine into His actual body and blood has been given, just as He commanded. Our Lord knows our needs better than we do ourselves, and He promised to never leave us alone, He loves us and cares for us now just as deeply and intimately as He did when he was here in the flesh, and we can rely on Him just as readily. Look to the Tabernacle and to the Altar, see the precious miracle that takes place at each Mass, and receive what will fulfill you in the most fundamental and needed way possible, the reception of our Lord into your very self.
The Deacons Bench 