“SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER”
Daily Spiritual Reflections
6th June 2021
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SUNDAY, SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST
(CORPUS CHRISTI)
Ex 24: 3-8;
Ps 115: 12-13, 15-18;
Heb 9: 11-15;
Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
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BECOMING A LIVING TABERNACLE
Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, which is also called Corpus Christi. It is a commemoration of three essential doctrines of our Catholic faith – the real presence of Jesus in the Sacrament, the Eucharistic sacrifice, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord originated in the Diocese of Liege in 1246 as the feast of Corpus Christi. In the reform of the Second Vatican Council, Corpus Christi was merged with the feast of the Precious Blood to become the ‘Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ’.
This doctrinal feast is established for three purposes: to give God thanks for Christ’s presence with us in the Holy Eucharist and to honour him there; to instill faith, mystery and devotion surrounding the Eucharist; and to teach people to appreciate and make use of the great gift of the Eucharist as a sacrament and as a sacrifice.
The Catholic Church teaches that in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of God-made-man are really, abidingly present, together with his soul and divinity by reason of the doctrine of the transformation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This takes place in the sacrifice during Mass as the Eucharist is a re-enactment of Christ’s sacrificial self-giving.
We celebrate Christ’s gift to us of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our life together as the Church. The Jews offered animal sacrifices to God, following which Jesus offered his own blood as a substitute for the blood of all human beings, thus sealing the new covenant made between God and humankind, bringing new life to the world. The Holy Eucharist is the centre and summit of the Christian life because it allows us to participate in Christ’s sacrifice and benefit from it in our own lives; it helps us to worship the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the most perfect way; it gives us a lasting memorial of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection and reminds us to make loving sacrifices for others.
The readings today remind us of Jesus’ offering of his Body and Blood, which serves as a lasting memorial of his death and resurrection for us. Jesus establishes the new and eternal covenant by using his own Blood, rather than that of sacrificial animals as presented to us in today’s first reading, which describes how Moses sealed the first covenant by taking the blood of the sacrificed animals and throwing half on the altar and the other half on the people.
In the second reading, we are taught about how Christ sealed the new covenant by taking his own blood to obtain eternal salvation for us. It is the blood of Christ that purifies our souls so that we may serve the living God and receive the eternal blessing promised to those who are called by him to believe in his son.
In the Gospel, we find Jesus eating the Passover with his disciples. However, at this Last Supper, there is no explicit mention made of a lamb sacrifice or of any other animal, something that was an essential part of this ritual meal. Instead, the body and blood of Jesus are identified. Jesus institutes the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist while eating the Passover meal. He took a piece of bread, said a prayer of thanks, broke it, gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my Body”; then, he took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God’s covenant.” The cup is an outward and visible sign of the new covenant and a symbol of fellowship in the Kingdom of God.
The Eucharist is a precious gift given to us by the Lord. Therefore, we should always participate in the Mass and receive holy communion with great love and respect, and not as a routine or obligation. Because, when we receive him in holy communion, we become bearers of Christ to the world; we become his living tabernacles.
Response: The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the name of the Lord.
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