The Body and Blood of Christ

The Body and Blood of Christ - Year C

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, (formerly Corpus Christi). Initiated as a diocesan observance in Belgium in the thirteenth century, with the intention of honouring the Eucharist outside of the Easter season, in time it became a solemnity of the universal Church.

Once again, as we did at Pentecost, we pray a sequence before the Gospel - a song of praise that lauds the eucharist as the real and undivided presence of Christ that unites us with Him.

The Gospel reading from Luke then draws a parallel between the Eucharist and the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. In this account, those that have been drawn together by the Word of Jesus are now seeking nourishment. Just as we are drawn from the Gospel to the altar.

For a short story it is heavy on the details. It tells us about the size of the groups that the people sat down in, the overall number of men that were there (and I would assume an equal number of women and children), the amount of food that the disciples had to share, and the amount that was left over.

I have reflected on this story before, and what it says to me about abundance, generosity and love, but this time around there is one line that stands out to me. When the disciples come to Jesus, asking him to send the crowd away to find something to eat and somewhere to stay for the night, Jesus defies their urging. Instead, he challenges them.

“Give them something to eat yourselves.”

These words stand out as a challenge for me too. As a Eucharistic community, nourished by the great gift of His real presence in the sacrament, it is not enough for us to simply pray for those in need. We are called to give and to serve others ourselves, just as Jesus has done.

This Sunday as we raise our voices to join with the universal Church, praying O thou, the wisest, mightiest, best, our present food and future rest, come make us each thy chosen guest, co-heirs of thine and comrades blest, with saints whose dwelling is with thee.

I pray that the nourishment offered by His body and blood might help and strengthen me to more consistently answer Jesus' call to be undivided in faith and action.

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