Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ – Cycle B
Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15;
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
Today is the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Today we recall and celebrate that tremendous gift that Jesus left us – the gift of the Eucharist.
Our second graders recently celebrated their first holy communion. Before that blessed event occurred, they spent many months learning about the Eucharist. Their parents, their teachers, their catechists and their priests taught them that the Eucharist is the summit of our faith journey. They have learned their lessons well.
Now, as a child, I knew that Eucharist was important, but I didn’t know why. As a second grader, I got the idea that Eucharist was special – I got a new suit, we practiced walking in and folding our hands, we had a party afterwards, and I got a rosary of my very own. It was a big deal! But as time passed, and the days since that “First Eucharist” faded from my thoughts, I lost what it was that made that day special. I continued to see the Eucharist from a second grader’s perspective rather than continuing to grow. If I had to describe my faith journey to you, I would say that we are all given a bucket to hold those baptismal waters. Through the years, my bucket developed a few leaks. It could no longer hold my water.
There was a time in my life when church was not important. I had finished school, gotten a job and was dating the woman that I would eventually call my wife. For me, church had become a burden. There were other things that I would rather do with my time. My bucket was empty. And what’s more, I didn’t care that the bucket was empty. I cast it aside and moved on. And so I stopped going to church. I stayed away for several years.
Eventually, as I became a husband, and later a father, I began to realize that there was something missing in my life. That something was God. And so I found my old bucket, dusted it off and tried to use it again. I should preface this by saying that several members of my family have left the Catholic Church and joined other Christian denominations. Occasionally, we would be invited to attend services at one of their churches. And they were nice. The singing was inspired. The preaching was quite good in some instances. But at the end of service, I was left wanting more. Their worship service felt incomplete to me. Water was going into my bucket, but it was still leaking out. Something was still missing. I eventually came to realize that that something was the Eucharist.
And so I returned to the Catholic faith. And I discovered something amazing. As I received the Eucharist again, my bucket started to reseal itself. I came to understand that the Eucharist had healing powers for me and my bucket. I could hold those waters again.
My ideas and my understanding of the significance of the Eucharist have changed through the years. I can remember seeing the Eucharist as a time for adoration – a time to reflect upon the power and holiness of God, but then I felt a need for a more personal relationship with God.
Jesus took the ordinary bread and wine – the staple of every meal shared with his disciples – and used them as a way for us to understand his presence. I realized that one of the things that makes us uniquely Catholic is our belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That was what was missing for me when I attended church services in other places. As a community of believers, we participate in the Eucharistic prayer. Our collective prayers reach the ears and heart of God as we ask that this ordinary bread and wine be transformed into the body and blood of Jesus. And we believe. We believe that God loves us so much, wants to be in relationship with us so much, that He becomes present to us in this form.
But our participation in the Eucharist doesn’t end there! Just as the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, if we are open to the grace God intends for us, we too are transformed as we receive this gift. We become the body and blood of Christ. Our hearts are broken open to continue this transformation as we share Christ with others. Our buckets overflow. And so we share those waters with others. The Eucharist allows us to refill the buckets of those around us even as it continues to refill our own!
When we labor for human rights, when we shelter the poor, when we dismantle the bombs, when we protect the unborn, when we reach out to the criminal, we do these things not as political activists or social workers. We do them because we are the body and blood of Christ. We are his hands and his feet. We are his sacred heart. We are his covenant of love.
May the body and blood of Christ bring us all to everlasting life.
Deacon Darryl J. Diemer
Feast of Corpus Christi
June 14, 2009
